The US-American fusion energy developer Helion Energy announced the groundbreaking for a new plant in Everett, Washington, on July 27th. “This new facility will focus on helium-3 production and bring more than 150 clean energy jobs to the region,” she said. The new facility will accelerate Helion’s efforts to build the world’s first commercially viable fusion power plant, the company said. The facility will host Helion’s seventh generation fusion prototype known as the Polaris. The construction work is expected to be completed in early 2022.
With its patented pulsed, ignition-free fusion technology, Helion is developing a cost-effective, carbon-free power plant. Helion’s fusion power plant will deliver flexible, scalable and affordable base load power and open a new avenue for the world to fully decarbonize power generation. “Helion will change the world! I am so grateful that this amazing, innovative company selected Everett for this new fusion device, ”said Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin. “Clean energy is the future – and that future starts here.” David Kirtley, Founder and CEO of Helion, said, “At this facility, Helion will move closer to its goal of breaking the fusion barrier and moving the world towards the end of the fossil fuel age.”
Helion said in June that it made history by becoming the first private company to create conditions in excess of 100 million degrees Celsius, the temperature required for the merger. This happened in its sixth prototype fusion generator, Trenta. It also announced that its Trenta prototype recently completed a 16-month test campaign and completed nearly 10,000 high-power pulses. According to Kirtley, Helion’s Polaris prototype will also produce helium-3 commercially “for the first time here on earth”. Helion’s fusion system will use deuterium and helium-3 as fuel, which will help keep the system small and efficient.
Helium-3 is more abundant on the moon than it is on earth. “If you can make helium-3 here on Earth, that’s a business in itself,” said Jacob Leachman, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Washington State University, quoted by the Seattle Times. “That would be important for a number of scientific interests.”
In September 2020, Helion raised $ 40 million in a fundraiser led by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. The company has also received investments from Mithril Capital Management, founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, as well as grants from the US Department of Energy. The new facility is due to be completed early next year.
Kirtley explained that Helion’s system converts fusion energy directly into electricity without the use of steam turbines or boiling water as intermediate steps, which are often quite expensive. “That drastically reduces the cost of capital,” he said. He added that Helion’s goal is to produce three times as much energy as is needed to run the machines.
PICTURED: Governor Jay Inslee, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, and Helion Energy CEO David Kirtley and CTO Chris Pihl join elected officials from Everett, Snohomish Counties and Washington at the groundbreaking ceremony. (Photo: Business Wire)
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