Vancouver company says it can demonstrate fusion technology at power plant scale by 2027

Source: CTV News Vancouver | by: Shannon Paterson

Updated Dec. 13, 2022 6:59 p.m. PST | Published Dec. 13, 2022 6:39 p.m. PST

On the heels of a major scientific breakthrough in fusion at a lab in California, the CEO of Vancouver-based General Fusion says his company is on track to demonstrate the real-world possibilities of the clean energy technology at the power plant level by the year 2027.

For the first time, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved ignition, a fusion reaction that produced more energy than it took to create. General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney says it’s a huge step forward, as nuclear fusion has all the benefits of energy produced by nuclear fission, without any of the downsides.

“This is a scientific breakthrough, and what you need to be able to do now is to take this approach and translate it and repeat it on a regular basis in order to turn it in to a power plant, and that needs to be done in an economical and viable way long term. And that is where we come in,“ said Twinney.

His Vancouver-based company has 200 employees working with different types of fusion technology, aimed at producing clean, renewable energy.

“Our approach to fusion is a two-stage approach: You create the fuel mixture, plasma, and then you compress it. We do this in a similar way to a diesel engine, compressed fuel and air in a large cylinder, and what they do is increase the density and temperature to the point you get fusion reaction,” said Twinney. “We have designed an approach that has an end in mind of commercializing fusion, so putting it on the grid.”

He aims to demonstrate that technology at a power plant level by the year 2027, and have General Fusion’s first commercial power plant online in the early 2030s.

“We are headquartered here in Vancouver, this is where we have built our large-scale prototypes, large plasma injectors, compression systems and achieved these conditions in which we can now step out of a lab and into a full-scale power plant demonstration,” said Twinney.

He believes fusion will play a big part in renewable energy going forward, but said it needs government buy-in and investment.

“Funding is one of the biggest gates to unlocking fusion commercially,” said Twinney. “The more capital we have, the faster we are able to go. I do absolutely believe we can achieve net zero (carbon emissions) by 2050, but we are going to need to move quickly.”