Google increases its commitment to nuclear fusion

Google is hoping for electricity from nuclear fusion and is investing money in it. Nuclear fusion is promising, as it is said to generate a lot of electricity without long-lasting radioactive waste. But so far, no one has managed to get more electricity out of it than the energy needed to trigger fusion. Whether and when this will succeed remains to be seen, “but we are hopeful that recent breakthroughs have brought CFS closer (to this goal),” writes Michael Terrell, who heads the Advanced Energy division at Google.

CFS stands for Commonwealth Fusion Systems. This company is a spin-off from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and aims to bring the world's first commercial nuclear fusion power plant online by the beginning of the next decade. CFS is currently building a demonstration plant called SPARC at its headquarters in Devens, Massachusetts. The aim is to use innovative superconducting magnets to control the plasma required for nuclear fusion. It is this approach that excites Google because it could enable “more compact and economically viable designs”.

It's not cheap, but CFS has no turnover. Google already invested money in CFS in 2018, together with many other venture capitalists, including Bill Gates. Now Google is giving CFS capital again. The data company is not disclosing the amounts involved in each case.

Purchase guarantee to attract further investors

Google has also committed to purchasing 200 megawatts of electricity from the commercial reactor planned in Virginia once it is connected to the grid. That would be half of the electricity it hopes to generate. This also includes options for further electricity from subsequent CFS power plants. Google is not saying how long the contract will last.

Two years ago, Microsoft concluded a comparable purchase agreement for 50 megawatts with the nuclear fusion developer Helion. At the time, the company from the US state of Washington said it wanted to generate electricity as early as 2028. German experts do not expect to see the first nuclear fusion power plant until the mid-2040s at the earliest.

Purchase guarantees are one way of convincing other investors and thus accelerating development. If the venture is unsuccessful, the capital invested is lost, but there is no payment for the service not rendered. Last year, Google concluded a contract for electricity from new nuclear power plants with so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMR). Google owners Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft have pledged to purchase huge quantities ofCO2 certificates from Direct Air Capture (DAC).

(ds)