Fusion power is still decades and billions of dollars away, even after this week’s major scientific breakthrough
The nuclear fusion breakthrough heralded on Tuesday was a historic event, culminating decades of research.
At the same time, fusion power will not be contributing electricity to any power grid for at least a decade, according to most industry watchers. To get there, there will have to be many more technical breakthroughs beyond what was celebrated on Tuesday — and the money to fund them.
Just after 1 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 5, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California executed a successful experiment to produce more energy from a nuclear fusion reaction than went into the lasers used to power the reaction.
“We got out 3.15 megajoules, we put in 2.05 megajoules in the laser,” said Mark Herrmann, a program director at Lawrence Livermore, on Tuesday. “That’s never been done before in any fusion laboratory anywhere in the world. So it’s super exciting.”
In a technical panel discussion after the main press announcement on Tuesday, scientists on the team recounted their reactions on learning the news.
Tammy Ma, a laser-plasma physicist at the lab, was waiting in an airport when her boss called her. “I burst into tears. I was jumping up and down in the waiting area, the crazy person.”
It took about 300 megajoules of energy from the electricity grid to fire the laser that was used in the experiment, said Herrmann on Tuesday. That’s equivalent to what is included in about two-and-a-half gallons of gasoline.
All of that energy went into the laser fusion reaction that showed net gain of about 1.1 megajoules — enough energy to boil a teakettle maybe two or three times.
“This is a science achievement, not a practical one,” Omar A. Hurricane, a chief scientist at Lawrence Livermore, told CNBC.
But the amount of energy isn’t the point. “The laser wasn’t designed to be efficient. The laser was designed to give us as much juice as possible to make this incredible conditions possible,” Herrmann said. “So there are many, many steps that would have to be made in order to get to an inertial fusion as an energy source.”
That’s partly because National Ignition Facility, where the demonstration took place, is 20 years old, and was constructed using technological components made in the 1980s and 1990s. Laser technology has progressed significantly since then.
The reason for the celebration was simply that energy was created at all.
“It’s exciting because it proves that fusion can work, and it opens the floodgates to further interest, investment, and innovation toward turning fusion into a power source,” said Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist and the author of The Star Builders.
(L-R) US Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security, Jill Hruby; US Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm; Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Kimberly Budil; White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director, Arati Prabhakar; and National Nuclear Security Administration Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, Marvin Adams hold a press conference to announce a major milestone in nuclear fusion research, at the US Department of Energy in Washington, DC on December 13, 2022. Researchers have achieved a breakthrough regarding nuclear fusion, a technology seen as a possible revolutionary alternative power source.
Olivier Douliery | Afp | Getty Images
The industry will need a whole lot more firsts
Progress is happening fast, but the scope of the problem is immense.
A little more than a year ago, in August 2021, the same laboratory had another breakthrough that Hurricane billed as “a Wright Brothers moment.” That experiment achieved fusion ignition in a controlled environment for the first time, but the total energy that was put into the reaction was less than what came out.
“A plasma is said to ignite when the energy gain due to fusion reactions exceeds all energy losses, resulting in a rapid escalation of temperature, pressure, and fusion energy yield. Previously this had only been achieved in the detonation of nuclear weapons,” explained Pravesh Patel, the scientific director of the fusion startup Focused Energy and a former scientist at Lawrence Livermore.
In that 2021 experiment, the energy gain was 0.73. The Dec. 5 experiment was the first time an energy gain over 1.0 was achieved — specifically, an energy gain of 1.5.
“Getting anything above 1x is everything psychologically because it shows fusion can be a (net) source of energy!” Turrell told CNBC. “To put it another way, it is this moment when >1x is achieved that will make it into the history books.”
An artists’ rendering of the 192 laser beams shooting to the center of the target chamber at the National Ignition Facility.
Courtesy Damien Jemison at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Patel expects to see energy gain of 4 or 5 coming out of the team at Lawrence Livermore eventually. But to make commercial fusion with lasers will require an energy gain of approximately 100x, Patel said.
To get to that level will require new facilities and new technology developments of component parts, such as efficient diode-pumped lasers.
“That will need progress in so-called ‘advanced concepts’ such as fast ignition or shock ignition, that are designed for high gain. Those concepts require new facilities to be built, so a breakthrough there will take until later this decade,” Patel said.
Moritz von der Linden, CEO of startup Marvel Fusion, also emphasized the importance of new lasers.
“Newest generation laser systems at other or new facilities must show that they can easily fire 10 laser pulses per second with high energies. Also, the targets must have an efficient energy absorption rate and be mass producible,” Linden told CNBC in a statement. “Only with optimized targets and latest-generation laser systems is it possible to show a net energy gain — the next truly revolutionary milestone. That will be one of the toughest engineering challenges imaginable to mankind.”
Here, the preamplifier module increases the laser energy as it heads toward the target chamber at the National Ignition Facitility.
Photo courtesy Damien Jemison at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Funding will have to increase dramatically
While it will be more than a decade until fusion is commercialized, investors are already pouring money into the sector: The private fusion industry has seen almost $5 billion in investment, according to the industry trade group, the Fusion Industry Association, and more than half of that has been since since the second quarter of 2021.
Most of that investment gone toward a different approach called magnetic fusion, which uses a donut-shaped device called a tokamak. Only about $180 million has gone into inertial fusion, the approach that typically uses lasers, according to Fusion Industry Association CEO Andrew Holland.
Regardless of the approach, Tuesday’s announcement is significant for the industry as a whole, according to Dennis Whyte, who works at MIT and cofounded Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a leading startup working with tokamak-based fusion that’s raised more than $2 billion.
“While the technology readiness of tokamaks is higher for energy systems, the breakthrough announced yesterday was a scientific one confirming that net energy can be produced by the fusion fuels,” Whyte told CNBC. “So this is an important result for all fusion endeavors.”
In September, the Department of Energy announced $50 million will go toward private fusion companies in public-private partnerships.
That funding is a critical step for fusion to be commercial by the late 2030s, where most fusion industry watchers are aiming, Patel told CNBC, but it is not enough. There needs to be between 10 and 100 times as much investment to “meaningfully accelerate the time it will take to commercialize fusion and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels,” Patel told CNBC.
Perhaps the greatest criticism of fusion is that it will take too long to come online to be helpful in responding to climate change.
But industry participants believe that bold action can succeed in time.
“In March, the White House agreed and launched a program to work together with the private sector to shoot for a ‘pilot plant’ with a bold decadal plan,” Whyte told CNBC. “Why this timeline? Well if you work backwards from 2050, the math tells you when you need the pilot plant if you want fusion to play a role in combatting climate change, based on the scale-up times that will be required. This will be hard, but worthwhile to attempt.”
Rivian will power its DC fast-charging network with renewable energy company RWE’s Champion Wind farm in Texas.
The two companies just signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for electricity from RWE’s repowered Champion Wind in Nolan and Mitchell counties, west of Abilene.
The 127-megawatt (MW) Champion Wind is getting new turbine nacelles and blades, which will extend the wind farm’s lifespan. Originally commissioned in 2008, the wind farm is expected to be fully upgraded by mid-2025. When the wind farm is back online, it’ll be capable of generating enough electricity to power nearly 1 billion miles of renewable driving every year for Rivian, or the equivalent of powering 36,000 homes annually in Texas.
This wind power is set to support Rivian’s DC fast-charging Adventure Network with renewable energy. Rivian has set a specific goal to enable 7 billion miles of renewable driving.
Paul Frey, Rivian’s VP of propulsion, charging & adventure products, said, “Champion Wind is a powerful enabler for Rivian drivers to become active participants in building a cleaner grid every time they charge their vehicle. This project shows the potential to meaningfully decarbonize the grid and support a more circular economy through reuse and recovery of existing infrastructure, all while maintaining highly competitive economics.”
Siemens Gamesa is supplying 41 turbines with new nacelles and blades on existing towers. The nacelles and blades are being manufactured in the US. In addition, as part of the repowering project, six new Siemens Gamesa turbines rated at 3.1 MW each will also be added to the wind farm.
The decommissioned wind turbine blades from Champion will be repurposed. RWE is working with REGEN Fiber, an Iowa-based company that recycles wind turbine blades to make reinforcement fibers for the construction industry. Those fibers are then used in concrete to add strength and durability, extending the lifespan of infrastructure.
RWE is the third-largest renewable energy company in the US.
Read more: This renewables giant is going to use wooden wind turbine towers
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Rivian is bringing back its “All-Electric upgrade offer” from now until November 30th, but with some changes to the program.
Earlier this year, Rivian offered $1k-$5k off a new Rivian if you trade in an old gas car, from April to June. The offer was available for specific vehicles, and with a sliding discount scale based on which Rivian vehicle you order.
Now the program has come back, but with quite a few changes from the previous version.
As of today, October 31, if you buy a new Rivian R1T or R1S new inventory vehicle from the R1 Shop, you can get a $3,000 discount if you also prove that you own or lease a qualifying gas-powered vehicle.
This is simultaneously simpler, more lenient, and more restrictive than the previous offer, in various ways.
First, the discount is a flat $3k (or $4,100 CAD), rather than having a scale based on what model you order, which is more streamlined.
Second, the discount applies to every gas or hybrid vehicle owner – you don’t have to trade in your vehicle, and you’re not limited to a specific list of vehicles. Just prove that you own or lease a gas car (copy of registration, proof of insurance, etc), and you get the discount.
However, third, it’s more restrictive as to what vehicles you can purchase. The current offer applies only to Rivian new inventory vehicles in the R1 Shop, and excludes demo vehicles, pre-owned vehicles, or custom build vehicles. It also does not apply to Rivian’s base Dual Standard models, but everything else is fair game.
In order to qualify, you need to place your order between today and November 30, and you must take delivery of the vehicle before December 31. Check out all the specifics of the offer on Rivian’s site here.
Electrek’s Take
Rivian is clearly trying to round out its yearly numbers with this offer, as the market for pricy cars is somewhat soft with increased interest rates. It just slightly lowered its annual delivery guidance, now planning to see roughly similar deliveries this year than last.
But its R1 vehicles just got a huge refresh to help the company with costs and to offer new features. The R1S is still one of the most popular high-priced vehicles in the US, and the company’s products earn universal acclaim from owners.
The interesting thing is that Rivian had a similar offer earlier this year, before the refresh, to help clear out inventory of older vehicles. It didn’t see it fit to offer the discount last quarter, perhaps buoyed by the updated model, but after a rough Q3 of deliveries it now brought the offer back.
Rivian is still guiding to reach a slight gross profit in Q4, though we’re sure we’ll hear more about that in its upcoming quarterly earnings next week.
If our coverage of Rivian has helped inform you about the brand, feel free to use our Rivian referral code to get 6 months of free charging or 750 Rivian Rewards points with your purchase.
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![Hyundai Casper EV Cross spotted for the first time with new design upgrades [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/10/Hyundai-Casper-EV-battery-2.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Hyundai’s new low-cost EV is getting a bold design upgrade. The Hyundai Casper EV Cross was spotted for the first time in public, revealing new design elements.
Although we knew a rugged “Cross” variant was headed to Europe, this was the first time the domestic model was spotted with an upgraded design.
Hyundai unveiled the Inster EV Cross earlier this month, giving the electric city car an off-road new look.
The Inster EV is Hyundai’s overseas version of its domestic Casper Electric model. In Korea, Hyundai’s Casper EV starts at around $20,000 (27.4 million won). Hyundai said its new EV can be bought for under $8,000 (10 million won) with subsidies.
In Europe, it starts at under $27,000 (25,000 euros). The Cross variant is built for “those looking for an EV with a more adventurous look,” Hyundai said.
Although it offers the same versatility as the standard model, the Inster EV Cross gains rugged design elements, including new front and rear bumpers, black claddings, skid plates, a roof rack, and more.
Here’s our first look at the Hyundai Casper EV Cross
After a rugged new variant with the Casper EV logo was spotted in Korea for the first time, a Cross model is expected to debut shortly.
The new video from HealerTV reveals added design elements, including the roof rack and more aggressive black trim.
The reporter notes that the Hyundai Casper EV Cross has a “much more mechanical and futuristic feel than the existing model.”
It almost appears “robot-like” with an added off-road feel. The Inster EV Cross gets up to 223 mi (360 km) WLTP driving range. In Korea, the Casper Electric is rated with up to 195 miles (315 km) driving range.
Although Hyundai Casper (Inster) EV is not expected to launch in the US, the low-cost model was spotted driving in California for the first time this month.
In the meantime, off-road fans can get in line for Hyundai’s upgraded 2025 IONIQ 5, which will be available with a rugged XRT trim. The 2025 IONIQ 5 XRT model was also recently caught testing ahead of deliveries.
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