A private fusion company, Helion Energy, aims to construct a fusion power plant with capacity of supplying electricity to Microsoft in the upcoming 5 years. Helion Energy bringing fusion energy to masses and Microsoft recently signed the deal with the company to purchase 50MW of energy until 2028 that would power around 40,000 households.
Sam Altman also invested $375 million in the company in November 2021 and is enthusiastic about the company’s potential. Even though the production of fusion energy is challenging, the company is making good progress and its 6th prototype is expected to exceed the maximum temperature to generate electricity more accurately. Also, the company executives believe it to be more reliable than solar and wind power.
Helion Energy is trying to build a fusion power plant that can provide enough electricity for Microsoft in five years. In May, Microsoft made a deal with Helion to purchase 50 megawatts of energy until 2028. This is sufficient to supply electricity to approximately 40,000 households.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is interested in the potential of fusion energy and Helion. Earlier he said that he is super excited about what is going to happen there. In November 2021, Altman led the Series E round of the company by investing $375 million.
Scott Krisiloff, Chief Business Officer of Helion Energy, told in an interview, “Fusion energy could be used to power data centers, which are large consumers of electricity.”
Although the potential and commitments for fusion energy are high, its production is an extremely difficult task. Achieving the temperature required for fusion to generate electricity is notably challenging. According to Helion, it is the first private fusion company to build the technology capable of reaching that temperature.
Krisiloff said, “As our population has grown and required more information, and more connectedness to the internet, the energy needs of our population grow as well. Helion is currently working on its seventh prototype, Polaris, that is expected to be completed in 2024, and would be the first to produce electricity from fusion.”
“Fusion is something that we utilize every day; all of our energy traces back to fusion in some way. But we’ve never been able to harness it on Earth in a way that we can produce electricity from it,” Krisiloff further added.
How is Fusion Energy generated?
Fusion energy is generated in a 40-foot-long tube. When two atoms come in contact with each other and form one single atom, then fusion energy takes place. By means of Helion’s plasma accelerator, deuterium is fused in order to produce Helium-3.
Deuterium is a form of hydrogen found in water and helium-3 is used for the reaction which is then put into a 40-foot-long tube. There the materials are compressed until reaching 100 million degrees Celsius.
It is the right condition to produce electricity, according to Krisiloff. Trenta is the 6th and latest prototype of Helion that is able to exceed the 100-million-degree Celsius temperature limits. According to Krisiloff, “That is one cycle of the machine, and then you pulse it over and over in order to get more energy out.”
How is Fusion a better energy resource than solar and wind?
Krisiloff explained, “What makes fusion energy promising is that there are abundant fuel sources for it. The fuel comes from water in the form of deuterium, which is found abundantly on Earth. Another benefit of fusion is that it’s safer, compared to other forms of energy such as nuclear energy, or fission, which is a chain reaction. That means if something happens to the machine producing fusion energy, it will shut down immediately.”
According to Krisiloff, only a limited amount of waste is produced in fusion in comparison to traditional fission methods. He also told that according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, some of that waste is radioactive and can remain in that condition for millions of years.
Helion Energy bringing fusion energy to masses and fusion energy produces least amount of CO2 emissions and requires the lowest amount of demand on a power grid. It is denser than other clean energy resources. This means the process does not require large amounts of space or land and can take place in a confined space. Plus, fusion energy better than wind and solar and is more reliable as it would not be impacted by extreme weather.
How does Helion’s approach to fusion differ from others?
According to Helion’s founders, fusion should not be considered a fundamental physical obstacle. I should be seen as an engineering challenge that can be overcome through the development, testing, and refinement of fusion systems and subsystems. A fresh approach to fusion can be achieved if we prioritize our ultimate objective, which is to generate electricity that is clean, secure, and abundant.
Helion’s approach stands out from other fusion methods in three significant ways:
- The company uses a pulsed non-ignition fusion system that helps it overcome the hardest physics challenges. This technique keeps the fusion device small and allows adjusting the power output as needed.
- Their system is designed specifically for the recovery of electricity. The system efficiently retrieves all untapped and fresh electromagnetic energy, similar to how regenerative braking works in an electric vehicle. Other fusion systems lose energy when water is heated to produce steam to power a turbine.
- They use deuterium and helium-3 (D-³He) as fuel. Helium-3 is a higher octane and cleaner fuel plus with this the system becomes more compact and efficient.
From where is Helion going to get helium-3?
The company produces Helium-3 by fusing deuterium in its plasma accelerator by utilizing the patented high efficiency closed-fuel cycle. The extremely scarce Helium-3 isotope, which is arduous to locate on our planet, is key in quantum computing and crucial for important medical imaging purposes.
Earlier, scientists even thought of mining helium-3 from the Moon since it is available there in abundance. But with Helion’s technology space travel for this can be avoided.
Also Read: What is Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE)?
Why does fusion need 100 million degrees Celsius?
Earth lacks the massive size and gravitational pull like the sun that makes up the perfect conditions for fusion. Therefore, scientists need to extremely heat up plasma to undergo fusion, even hotter than the sun. Thus, in this situation fusion happens faster.
100-million° Celsius is basically considered the minimum temperature requirements for large amounts of fusion to take place for generating commercial electricity. Helions 6th prototype, Trenta has reached temperatures that are far greater than 9 keV which is equivalent to 104 million° Celsius.
How Helion generate electricity from fusion?
Our device generates electricity without using heat to create steam or requiring cryogenic superconducting magnets. Our technical approach is crucial when it comes to commercializing fusion-generated electricity at significantly low expenses since it minimizes efficiency loss.
Our device has high-beta FRC plasmas that generate their own magnetic field through internal electrical current. Consequently, the magnetic field produced pushes against the coils surrounding the machine. FRCs collide and are compressed by magnets in the fusion chamber. Compressing plasma makes it hotter and denser, causing fusion reactions and changes in magnetic flux.
The change in magnetic flux creates more magnetic flux in the nearby magnets, producing electricity in the coils. The same process is explained by Faraday’s Law of Induction. In this way, Helion Energy bringing fusion energy to masses in a cleaner way.
Source: Helion Energy
