Focused Energy to build laser fusion development facility near San Francisco

31 Oct 2024

$65 million investment in Bay Area intended to build on NIF breakthrough achieved in 2022.

Focused Energy, the company pursuing what it calls “the most proven path to commercially viable fusion”, has announced plans to site a laser development facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The facility, which will also serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters, will house what the company describes as “the world's most advanced high-energy prototype inertial fusion lasers – critical to developing commercially viable fusion and unlocking limitless, clean energy”.

CEO Scott Mercer commented, “We are building this facility in the Bay Area because it will enable us to draw from the incredible pool of talent in the region as we pursue our work to commercialize fusion.

“To date, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, also located in the San Francisco Bay Area, remains the only fusion facility that has achieved net energy gain. We are building on that work with several of the same scientists that achieved the historic breakthrough. With this new facility we will optimize the laser technology and begin to build the global supply chain needed to take fusion from the pages of science fiction to the realm of real-world engineering,” said Mercer.

The Focused Energy announcement asserts that there is “a growing gap between the world’s decarbonization goals and rising energy needs,” adding that “baseload power demand is projected to double between now and 2050 as a result of factors including increasing standards of living in the developing world, the electrification of transportation, and the adoption of AI powered by energy-hungry data centers.”

‘Fusion is the solution’

The company’s conclusion is that “commercial fusion is the only viable solution to the challenges of increasing baseload power to sustain economic growth while decarbonizing the economy.” The approach – direct drive laser fusion – builds upon the remarkable work conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Lab that achieved net energy gain for the first time in December 2022.

The company is developing low-cost, millimeter-scale deuterium/tritium fuel targets, known as “pearls”, and modular laser arrays optimized for high repetition rate and efficiency. The company already has established a fuel targetry lab in Darmstadt, Germany. Now, it is hoped that the new facility will help optimize the efficiency of the lasers and establish the global supply chain needed to support commercial fusion at scale.

Ultimately, Focused Energy says it intends to bring the fuels and lasers together, first in an integrated engineering facility to test and optimize target design and laser and target technology, and later in a pilot plant that will produce fusion power at commercial scale.

“The fusion revolution will enable us to build a future that unlocks a new era of economic growth while also putting us on a realistic path toward decarbonization,” said Mercer. “If humanity’s first foray into energy was the discovery of fire, harnessing fusion will be its culmination. We have the power to harness the universe's own source of energy within the next decade. And we will all be far better for it.”

Focused Energy has raised more than $175 million in private capital and public grant funding. It is one of eight fusion companies selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for funding under the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. Additionally, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has supported the company’s research and development efforts through significant grants.