- Google has signed the largest direct corporate off-taker agreement for 200MW of fusion energy with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) who are developing their first commercial plant in Chesterfield, Virginia.
- CFS is a US$2-billion startup backed by both Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
- Google are also making a second capital investment in CFS to help them build on promising scientific and engineering breakthroughs and continue moving their technology toward commercialisation.
At its core, 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.
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CFS seeks to use powerful high-temperature superconductor magnets arranged like a donut — called a tokamak— to confine and control the plasma, creating the conditions necessary for fusion to occur.
“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,” said Google in a statement.
“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. 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 catalyze the commercial fusion market,” added Google
Since 2010 Google has procured over 22 GW of clean energy which has enabled the company to successfully reduce our data center energy emissions by 12%.
Google has also signed landmark agreements for advanced nuclear and next-generation geothermal.
“We are adding Fusion to our portfolio because of its potential to be transformative in delivering abundant, sustainable energy for the planet. Our new partnership with CFS marks an exciting step forward on this journey,” concluded Google.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
