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Google to buy 200 Megawatts of power from Virginia fusion

project

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Google also boosts investment in Commonwealth Fusion

Systems

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Lots of hurdles for fusion to become commercial

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CFS expects project to generate power by early 2030s

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - Alphabet's

Google said on Monday it has struck a deal to buy power from a

project in Virginia fueled by fusion, the reaction that powers

the sun and the stars but is not yet commercial on Earth.

Google signed what it called the technology's first direct

corporate power purchase agreement with Commonwealth Fusion

Systems, a company that spun off from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology in 2018.

The deal is for 200 megawatts of power, about enough to power a

small city, from CFS's ARC project that is being developed in

Virginia, home to the world's biggest hub of energy-hungry data

centers. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Physicists at national laboratories and companies have been

trying for decades to use lasers or, in the case of CFS, large

magnets to foster fusion reactions, in which light atoms are

forced together to release large amounts of energy.

In 2022, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in

California briefly achieved net energy gain in a fusion

experiment using lasers.

But achieving so-called "engineering break-even," in which

more energy comes out of a reaction than the overall energy that

goes into a fusion plant to get a reaction going, has been

elusive. And for a plant to generate power from fusion, the

reactions must be constant, not rare.

"Yes, there are some serious physics and engineering

challenges that we still have to work through to make it

commercially viable and scalable," Michael Terrell, Google's

head of advanced energy, told reporters in a call. "But that's

something that we want to be investing in now to realize that

future."

As artificial intelligence and data centers boost power demand

around the world, interest in fusion is spiking. Fusion, unlike

nuclear fission, in which atoms are split, does not generate

large amounts of radioactive waste. In addition, fusion, if

successful, could help fight climate change.

CFS aims to generate power from the 400 MW project known as

ARC in the early 2030s but must first clear the scientific

hurdles.

"Without partnership and without being bold and setting a

goal and going for it, you won't ever reach over those

challenges," Bob Mumgaard, CFS's CEO and co-founder, told

reporters. He said the ARC plant will teach CFS about the

"teething phase" of fusion, in which he expects to learn about

how often fusion machines break down and how they can run

reliably.

Google also said on Monday it was increasing its investment

in CFS, but did not disclose the amount. Google was one of many

investors that invested a total of $1.8 billion into CFS in

2021. Mumgaard said Google's investment on Monday was

"comparable" to its 2021 one.