What is Fusion Power & Why is Google Backing it?
Fusion is science fact. But harnessing the energy that powers the sun has always seemed more like science fiction.
Michael Terrell, Head of Advanced Energy at Google, admits it has “long been an energy moonshot”, but is “seeming more and more possible”.
Why? Because Google is making the first direct corporate purchase for fusion energy from Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a leader in the race to develop commercial fusion power.
The tech giant is committing to offtake 200 MW of carbon-free electricity from CFS’s first grid-connected power plant in Virginia, which it plans to build within the next decade.
Michael adds: “Commercialising fusion is immensely challenging and success is not guaranteed. But if it works, it could change the world.”
How does fusion power work?
Michael has written a blog on Google’s website, in which he waxes lyrical about fusion’s potential for the planet’s energy creation.
He says: “Imagine a world powered by the same energy that fuels the sun and the stars.
“Fusion holds huge potential as an energy source of the future: it’s clean, abundant and inherently safe and it can be built just about anywhere.
“Commercialising fusion is immensely challenging and success is not guaranteed. But if it works, it could provide a more secure and clean energy future.”
Fusion is the same process that powers the sun and stars. It involves taking light atomic nuclei and heating them to extreme temperatures – over 100 million degrees Celsius.
At these temperatures, the fuel becomes a plasma and when dense enough, the nuclei fuse, releasing a tremendous amount of energy that can be captured to generate carbon-free electricity.
CFS : Moving closer to making fusion work
CFS is using compact tokamak reactors and high-temperature superconducting magnets.
Tokamak is the name for high-temperature superconductor magnets arranged like a donut to confine and control the plasma, creating the conditions necessary for fusion to occur.
Michael says: “We’re excited about CFS’s technology because their magnet breakthroughs enable a more compact and commercially viable tokamak design.
“This is the core innovation in their SPARC demonstration machine, currently being assembled in Massachusetts.”
Michael says the approach “represents one of the most promising paths to bringing fusion energy out of the lab and onto the grid”.
This is why Google is also making its second capital investment in CFS, to help it build on promising scientific and engineering breakthroughs and continue moving its technology forward.
The barriers ahead for fusion
In order for fusion to succeed, experts must ascertain which technological pathways can produce more energy than they consume (known as "net energy positive”.
While no private company has reached this milestone, Michael says Google is hopeful that recent breakthroughs have moved CFS closer.
He says: “Building on our initial R&D investment in CFS in 2021 for SPARC’s development, our new investment will support efforts to put their first commercial plant, ARC, on the grid.
“We hope our offtake agreement for CFS’s ARC will add momentum to these efforts and as part of our agreement we have the option to purchase power from future plants.”
He adds: “Scaling any type of new technology requires taking some bold steps, and first-of-a-kind power plants are no different.
“That’s why Google and CFS are eager to use ARC to catalyse the commercial fusion market.”
Google’s clean energy history
The fusion energy announcement builds on Google’s long history of investment in clean energy.
Since 2010 it has procured over 22 GW of clean energy, which has helped these technologies mature and enabled the company to reduce its data centre energy emissions by 12%.
Michael says: “As global energy demand grows, companies like Google can play an important role supporting technologies that have a path to provide clean firm capacity within the next decade.
“This includes our landmark agreements for advanced nuclear and next-generation geothermal as well as our ability to identify and back promising earlier-stage technologies.”
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