Proxima Fusion signs Japan deals for fusion power supply chain
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The race is on to build the world’s first commercial fusion power plant — and one of Europe’s leading contenders in the field has just received a boost.
Munich-based Proxima Fusion signed memoranda of understanding with two Japanese industrial partners, Fujikura and Kyoto Fusioneering, in Tokyo on Oct. 28. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — who was visiting in a bid to deepen trade ties — were both in attendance.
Ann Mettler, president of Catalyse Europe, a Brussels-based clean-energy think tank, and a former vice president of Breakthrough Energy, said developing the technology should be a strategic imperative for Europe.
“Europe is a resource-poor geography and we are very dependent on China. The world is in competition for technological supremacy — this is a zero-sum game,” Mettler told CNBC, speaking in a personal capacity.
“Fusion is a silver bullet because the promise is abundant, clean, limitless energy.”
Fusion energy seeks to replicate the way the sun produces power, using super-heated plasma to fuse two light atomic nuclei into one heavier one, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process.
There are two main approaches: one uses high-powered lasers, while the other uses powerful magnets to confine the plasma. Proxima is developing a type of magnetic device called a stellarator, which is designed to hold the plasma in place for long periods.
The agreement with Kyoto Fusioneering will expand existing work on next-generation gyrotrons — devices that generate high-power microwaves used to heat the plasma.
Why HTS tape matters
Proxima’s agreement with 141-year-old Fujikura will explore plans for industrial-scale manufacturing in Germany of high-temperature superconducting, or HTS, tape, a specialized metallic tape that is superconducting at relatively high temperatures and can carry electrical current with virtually no resistive losses.
The tape is wound into coils to form powerful magnets that confine and control the heated plasma inside the stellarator.
Superconductivity experiment at the stand of the Japanese company Fujikura during the CEATEC 2024 in Tokyo, Japan on October 18, 2024.
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Francesco Sciortino, CEO and co-founder of Proxima Fusion, told CNBC that Fujikura, which employs over 50,000 people worldwide, was a leader in manufacturing high-temperature superconductors, having built its reputation in optical fibers. “They think this tape has the potential to be the next optical fibre,” he said.
He said Proxima, which is studying plans to build a manufacturing facility in Lower Saxony, hoped to make around 5,000 kilometers, or 3,100 miles, of tape annually by 2030.
The 140 million euro ($160 million) facility would be financed partly by the proceeds of a $468 million funding round in July, which valued Proxima, whose backers include Alphabet-owned Google, at $2.7 billion.
Proxima expects to need around 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles)…
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