Fusion energy startup Focused recently signed a deal that will lead to a new power plant in Germany, according to Reuters.
The agreement includes the central German state of Hesse, energy conglomerate RWE, and support for the newly elected conservative federal government. Focused will now start retrofitting RWE's retired nuclear power plant in the town of Biblis to produce fusion power. The plan is to complete the 1-gigawatt plant by 2035 at a maximum cost of $7.6 billion.
Focused CEO Scott Mercer said the lasers they'll be employing in Germany are 30 times more efficient than those in Focused's U.S. labs, per Reuters.
Germany wound down its entire domestic nuclear energy production in the wake of public backlash from the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. As a result, Germany ended up increasing energy grid pollution by relying on gas to make up the difference. One estimate suggests that the country could have reduced its emissions by 73% if it had kept its nuclear power plants.
Fusion power, though promising, faces long construction timelines. If successful, it can produce a large amount of power to meet rising demands, operate more safely than traditional fission power, and produce waste that is much less radioactive than nuclear.
Displacing oil and gas power is a high priority because of the environmental benefits. The grid produces pollution that traps heat in the atmosphere, melts ice caps, and exacerbates extreme weather trends. Renewable sources like solar and wind can work alongside large-scale fusion projects to avoid those issues.
It may be a slow burn for fusion to take root in Germany, but there appears to be dedication to what "would be the beginning and the learning lesson towards building a supply chain for what would eventually be global deployment," Mercer told Reuters.
"The seriousness of the federal government in Germany towards pursuing fusion as part of the energy mix is, frankly, two orders of magnitude higher than it has been in the U.S," he added.
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