Many researchers hope that nuclear fusion will one day provide limitless, safe, and climate-friendly energy, which is why countries such as Germany, the US, China, Japan and the UK, as well as the European Union, are investing billions of euros in developing it. In addition, dozens of startups backed by private capital have entered the fray and injected a new dynamism by achieving research milestones, such as an energy gain.
“The EU, as well as national governments including Germany, UK, France and Italy, increasingly recognise fusion as a generating technology essential for energy sovereignty, industrial competitiveness, and carbon-neutral economic growth,” Proxima Fusion said.
The fusion industry is careful to stress that growing optimism about the prospects of the technology must not become an excuse for delaying the rollout of renewables. Even though Proxima’s stated aim is to “deliver limitless, safe, clean fusion energy to the grid in the 2030s”, many proponents say large-scale commercial use is still decades away. This would mean that neither Germany nor Europe can count on the technology in their drive to become climate neutral by 2045 and 2050, respectively. Some fusion sceptics also say the technology will be costly and unsuitable for an energy system based on weather-dependent renewables. But proponents insist fusion will be indispensable in the long-term, given growing electricity demand.
Both Proxima Fusion and the Wendelstein 7-X pilot plant use a “stellarator” fusion power plant design, which holds the superhot gas, or plasma, in a asymmetrically contorted ring shape with dozens of extremely powerful magnets costing several million euros each. In contrast, the international ITER fusion research reactor in France is a “tokamak” design, which uses currents within the plasma in addition to magnets to hold the plasma in a symmetrical doughnut shape. Both approaches pursue so-called magnetic fusion, while a totally separate fusion reactor design is based on extremely powerful lasers.
Proxima Fusion said it is “building on Europe’s long-standing public fusion investment and industrial supply chains”, which were boosted by public projects such as ITER and Wendelstein. The company insists that all fundamental physical hurdles on the way to a pilot fusion plant have been overcome, and that the industrial manufacturing of key components like super-conducting magnets have become the prime challenge.
