The race to develop the energy source of the future is gathering pace. Who will win? The US and China? Or Europe? German start-up Focused Energy, based in Darmstadt, aims to become the global leader in the construction of commercial laser fusion power stations.
The development of fusion energy is on top of the political high-tech agenda of Germany and the European Union. Fusion start-ups are being founded in great numbers around the planet, especially laser based fusion technology, which attracts huge amounts of risk capital. This spring, Focused Energy raised $240 million dollars alone – the largest figure ever raised in the first round of financing in the global fusion industry.
After a tough security check, the gates of the Biblis power station open for Euronews. The site was used to be one of Germany’s largest nuclear fission power stations. Now it is where the new laser fusion facility will be built.
Germany is getting serious about phasing out nuclear fission. All over the country, buildings are being decontaminated and cooling towers demolished. The giant reactor domes at Biblis, however, will remain in place. But in future, it will be nuclear fusion inside – rather than nuclear fission. RWE, one of Europe’s largest energy companies and the site’s owner, has invested €60 million in Focused Energy.
The company rolls out an extremely ambitious roadmap. “In five years’ time, I want to have a first laser fusion demonstrator here in Biblis,” Ulrich Sigel, Focused Energy’s Vice President, tells Euronews. “In ten years’ time, we want to build the pilot power station there, and in 15 years’ time, the world’s first commercially competitive laser fusion power station.”
Why Biblis? “The conditions here are simply superb”, explains Sigel while showing us around. “We can make use of the existing infrastructure – from the grid connection right through to buildings.”
Sigel points to the main reactor dome of the decomissioned nuclear power station: “In the former Reactor Block A, our pilot laser fusion power station is to be built.”
The fusion power station is set to produce almost one gigawatt of electricity, enough for two million households. Critics consider the technology to be not yet developped enough and too expensive. Focused Energy, on the other hand, believes that laser fusion will be competitive – even when compared with electricity generated from nuclear fission or renewables.
However, the remaining technical challenges are enormous. There are unsolved problems linked to the fuel cycle and the scaling up of the first promising results incoming from the laboratories to be overcome.