3 Key Insights from Fusion24
Fusion24, the world’s greatest fusion showcase, returned to London’s Science Museum last Tuesday, 18th June, for a fun-packed day of discussion and networking.
Melanie Windridge, our CEO, hosted a session called Tour de Force about global progress in fusion, where she commented on the significance of the recent achievements of labs around the world. (Many of the achievements have been covered in our News Insights posts, so head there for more.)
Here are our 3 insights from the event.
Melanie Windridge at FUSION24
1. Fusion can boost GDP while also lowering CO2 emissions
Professor Mark Maslin reminded us in his morning keynote address that by 2050 energy usage around the world will at least double.
To bring us standards of living around the world we will need about 20 terrawatts of energy generation, relative to the 8TW now, according to Phil Larochelle of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. To do that in a clean way—to boost GDP around the world without CO2 emissions—will need fusion.
Jennifer Powers, Meld Energy and former No.10 Special Adviser on Business, Regulation and Energy Policy, put it as fusion making the difference between abundance and scarcity.
We also will need additional energy to scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere (Direct Air Capture, or DAC) beyond 2050–something that doesn’t get talked about, according to Maslin.
Mark Maslin, climate scientist at UCL kicking off the day
2. Many people think that funding (lack of) has the greatest power to derail fusion commercialisation.
When asked what are the limiting factors on the path to commercialise fusion, Scott Davis of the Advanced Fission and Fusion Group at FraserNash said, “It's always money. Over in the US they have more flying around at the moment. Historically the UK has been the world leader in fusion but there's only so much we can do to keep up with that momentum.”
And it’s not just funding for the private fusion developers that’s important. There are many other elements that need building up too, concurrently.
Alasdair Morrison, CTO at Oxford Sigma, says: “It’s really important for investors to remember that Fusion isn’t a package solution, it’s a whole ecosystem that will need to be built together. As a company you could be investing into a part of the supply chain that might be really critical and have good spinoffs, or you could be investing into building an education program. It’s recognising that it’s not just cash on the table to a plasma developer, there’s a lot more to do and enough space for everybody to be involved in some way.”
Panel discussion on the public perception of fusion with Rishi Bhattacharya, Kelly Lea, Zion Lights, Jennifer Powers and Matt Walker
3. Fusion can learn from other industries
Perhaps like new start-ups can get business mentors to help them grow, fusion could do with some “industry mentors” to give advice on growing a new industry.
Valerie Jamieson, Fusion Cluster Manager who was moderating all the sessions in the main stage, said at the end of the day: “One of the themes I picked up from the stage was parallels with other industries. Sometimes in fusion you think, ‘oh my gosh, this is really complex. This is really difficult. Will we ever manage it?’ But hearing about the parallels with the wind industry, parallels with deep tech, parallels with NASA programmes, the vaccine programme with biotech… it's really given me a lot of hope.”
Melanie with Tammy Ma, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Valerie Jamieson, The Fusion Cluster and UK Atomic Energy Authority at the end of their round-the-world session on the progress of fusion globally
Overall…
There was a palpable sense of excitement and energy at Fusion24 in London. There is a clear purpose: to commercialise fusion and amplify the benefits to all. As Mark Maslin stated: “We have to drive the science and the engineering forward so we can realise the dream of huge amounts of clean energy in the future because that will allow us to deal with things like climate change, extreme poverty, and lift the world into a brighter fusion future.”