FIA’s 2024 report shows continued growth and a maturing fusion industry
By Naomi Scott-Mearns & Melanie Windridge
‘The Global Fusion Industry in 2024’ was released by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) on Wednesday 17th July. The report is the 4th fusion industry report by the FIA and was compiled by surveying 45 private fusion companies. The report gives aggregate industry statistics which reveals the pulse of the industry.
© Fusion Industry Association
Here are three key insights from the report.
1.The stellarator is the latest trend in fusion approaches.
This 2024 fusion industry report shows that there are now 8 private companies working on the stellarator approach, up from 6 in 2023 and just 2 in 2021.
Stellarators now make up the largest group in terms of approach, followed by laser-driven inertial fusion (7 companies pursuing, versus 2 in 2021) and then tokamaks/spherical tokamaks (6 companies pursuing, versus 5 in 2021).
The rise in the number of laser fusion companies can be attributed to the achievement of exceeding energy breakeven at the National Ignition Facility in 2022—still the only fusion approach to have demonstrated an energy gain.
The attraction of stellarators comes down to their inherent stability, in contrast to the tokamak concept. This has been known in theory for decades, but the price of this improved plasma stability and reduced operational complexity is an increase in design and construction complexity. For a long time this was seen as too tough a challenge.
However, improved simulation capability is making the challenge increasingly tractable, particularly when coupled with high temperature superconducting magnets or new manufacturing techniques. Meanwhile, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany has been operating for over 8 years and achieving impressive results, including maintaining a hot plasma for 8 minutes in 2023. These factors could be driving fusion founders towards the stellarator.
2.Total funding into fusion is now more than $7 billion, but growth is too slow.
Overall investment in the fusion industry has grown to $7.1 billion. This is up by $900 million from $6.2 billion total funding reported in the FIA’s 2023 fusion industry report.
The fusion industry continues to grow and show signs of maturing. As Andrew Holland, CEO of the FIA, says in the report’s foreword, the fusion industry in 2024 shows “more of the same,” which is a sign of it maturing as investment and number of jobs both continue to steadily increase.
There has been a growth in private sector fusion companies with at least 45 working on the commercialisation of fusion in 2024, which is compared to 43 in 2023.
The three largest publicly reported investments into fusion companies in the past year are:
• Xcimer Energy = $100 million
• SHINE Technologies = $90 million
• Helion Energy = $65 million
However, Andrew Holland states that although the growth in funding is positive, it is not enough: “if funding into private fusion companies only grows at $1 billion per year over the next decade, the industry will not meet its bold targets.”
Two-thirds of respondents say funding will be a major challenge in the next five years.
However… Government funding into private companies is growing hugely and driving industry growth.
The FIA 2024 report shows that public funding into private companies has increased by more than 50% in the past year, from $271 million in 2023 to $426 million in 2024.
The FIA reports that this finding “signals a strategic choice by a growing number of governments that it will be business—not government—that will deliver the pilot plants that demonstrate fusion as a viable energy source.” Indeed, ITER – a publicly funded project involving 35 nations – has pushed back its timelines to commence operations to 2035. It once stood as a project to demonstrate net power before all others, but stands to be over-taken by private-sector driven projects running with fewer people and lower budgets.Though that’s not to say ITER doesn’t have value.
Most commonly, public money is directed towards private sector companies through public-private partnerships (PPP). Examples of public-private partnerships which are funnelling public money into private fusion companies include:
• US Department of Energy Milestone-based programme
• The German fusion funded programme
• Japan’s Moonshot R&D programme
• UK Fusion Futures programme
16 companies surveyed in the report said that they were involved in public-private partnerships where governments engaged with them in cost-share projects.
The survey findings from this report reinforce the conclusions from the recent FIA white paper Commercializing Fusion Energy published in early July 2024.[NS5] The white paper describes public-private partnerships (PPP) as “among the most powerful tools in modern society.”
Read more about public-private partnerships in fusion and how they reduce risk.
3. Fusion is a growing career opportunity, particularly for engineers.
There are now more than 4000 people employed globally in fusion jobs in private companies.
In 2021 in the FIA’s first fusion industry report there were just over 1000 jobs reported in the industry: that is 23 private fusion companies reporting that they employed a total of 1,096 people globally. In 2024, the jobs figure in private fusion is now more than 4000: 43 private companies employing 4,107 people. That is an increase of 275%! The growth in jobs is another sign of a maturing industry and developing people and skills.
Of the more than 4000 jobs which now exist in fusion globally, more than 70% of these are science or engineering-based which reinforces the focus private fusion companies have on demonstrating an energy source that works and so requiring the scientific and engineering expertise to realise this.
Andrew Holland in his foreword to the FIA report states that the jobs growth is positive but there are not enough people in the industry yet, “if the workforce only grows at a rate of 1,000 people per year, there won’t be enough people to build the pilot plants.”
Download the FIA's Global Fusion Industry in 2024 report.