(CNN) — If all goes well, Virginia could become the site of the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant, harnessing this futuristic clean power to generate electricity by the early 2030s. will be, according to an announcement Tuesday from startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
CFS, one of the largest and most touted fusion companies, plans to invest billions of dollars to build a facility near Richmond. Once operational, the plant will connect to the grid and generate 400 megawatts, enough to power about 150,000 homes, CEO Bob Mumgaard said.
“This will be the first time in the world that fusion power will be available on a grid-scale basis,” Mamgaard said. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it “a historic moment for Virginia and the entire world.”
The power plant will be a new step in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process that powers stars. But the road to getting there will likely be uneven, especially since the technology has not yet proven to be viable.
The world desperately needs clean, abundant energy sources to replace fossil fuels as a constantly available baseload power source. Nuclear fusion promises just that.
This involves fusing atoms to create a powerful burst of energy using hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. The most popular technique uses a donut-shaped machine called a tokamak.
Nuclear fusion is nearly limitless, does not cause pollution that heats the planet, and unlike nuclear fission, the nuclear technology currently used by the world, does not leave a long-term legacy of nuclear waste.
But taking it from research projects in labs around the world to commercial use has proven to be incredibly difficult. A common joke in the industry is that nuclear fusion is only a few decades away.
That’s something that CFS recognizes as well. “Nothing happens overnight with fusion,” Mamgaard said. But the startup, which was spun out of MIT in 2018 and has raised more than $2 billion so far, says it’s doing well.
It is working “deeply” into building tokamaks that can demonstrate net fusion energy, a reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. The company hopes to produce the first plasma (a superheated cloud of electrically charged gas in which fusion reactions occur) in 2026 and achieve net fusion energy shortly thereafter.
Mamgaard said the “next action” would be to build, own and operate a power plant to connect fusion power to the grid.
The startup considered more than 100 power plant locations around the world before choosing the James River Industrial Center in Virginia. The site is owned by Dominion Energy, which will lease it to CFS and provide technical assistance. The construction process is expected to be long, and CFS said it is still seeking permits.
CFS said the site was chosen for its growing economy, skilled workforce, focus on clean energy, and the ability to connect to the grid after the coal-fired power plant is retired.
“In the early 2030s, the Richmond area will be in the spotlight as the birthplace of commercial fusion energy,” Mumgaard said.
Virginia is also the world’s largest data center market, an area that requires enormous amounts of energy and demand for it is increasing. According to an analysis by Boston Consulting Group, US data center power consumption is expected to triple by 2030, equivalent to the electricity needed to power approximately 40 million US homes.
According to CFS, the Virginia plant will be the first of thousands that will be added to the power grid in the future.
The startup is not the only private company seeking to accelerate the timeline for achieving fusion and commercializing it, with others pledging to do so by early next decade.
In general, fusion startups “tend to be a little more aggressive about what they’re promising,” Jerry Navratil, a professor of fusion energy and plasma physics at Columbia University, told CNN last month. He added that there is a big difference between producing energy from fusion and having a working system that powers the grid and is safe, licensed and operating.
Mamgaard acknowledged that “there are challenges along the way and the situation will not change overnight.” But, he added, “designers and planners can now move from general concepts to specific locations for the next chapter of their fusion journey.”
CNN Wire
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