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6 hours ago
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Google has agreed to purchase 200 megawatts of fusion energy from Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). That's assuming, of course, the Massachusetts-based startup can actually get the miniaturized sun to make more power than it consumes, something even the Chocolate Factory admits is a bit of a "moonshot."
CFS's ARC fusion power plant is under development in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and is expected to produce about 400 megawatts of energy when fully operational sometime in the "early 2030s." Google says it's increasing its investment in the startup to accelerate this development, though an actual sum wasn't disclosed.
The system itself won't surprise anyone who's been following fusion power over the past 80-plus years of research and development. CFS plans to use high-temperature superconducting magnets arranged in what looks a bit like a hollow donut. This design, often referred to as a Tokamak-style reactor, uses magnets to confine superheated plasma until it undergoes fusion, releasing energy in the process.
Tokamak reactors have been around since the 1950s, but the trick is pulling more energy out of the system than what's required to start and maintain it. Up to this point, nobody has managed to build a net-energy-positive fusion reactor.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is arguably the closest we've come. Unlike a Tokamak, the system used laser confinement to trigger fusion. In late 2022, the system generated 3.15 megajoules of fusion energy, exceeding the 2.05 megajoules delivered by the 192 lasers. The only problem is the energy required to actually fire the lasers far exceeded that at 322 megajoules.
Nevertheless, fusion's potential as a source of clean, abundant, and safe energy is too tantalizing for tech companies as they race to build energy-hungry datacenters to train and run their AI models. Google was among a cadre of tech titans and venture capital firms that drove $1.8 billion in funding into CFS back in 2021.
"Commercializing fusion is immensely challenging, and success is not guaranteed. But if it works, it could change the world by providing a more secure and clean energy future," the search giant wrote in a blog post.
And they're not alone. You may recall that back in 2023, Microsoft threw its weight behind Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion, signing up to host a 50MW fusion power plant at one of its datacenters in Washington State.
Helion's tech seeks to miniaturize the fusion process, using electromagnetic fields to accelerate plasma generated from deuterium hydrogen and helium-3 to speeds so fast they exceed 100 million degrees Celsius. By colliding two plasma blobs in the center of its field-reversed configuration (FRC) reactor, magnetic fields are produced, and energy is extracted through induction. This process is then repeated over and over again.
The company has yet to produce more power than it consumes. With that said, the team remains confident they'll do it this year for sure.
Neither Microsoft nor Google are putting all their eggs in a fusion-shaped basket. They're investing heavily in alternative energy sources ranging from wind and solar to more traditional fission nuclear power plants, both large and small.
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Microsoft is working with Constellation Energy to reignite the shuttered Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor. Meanwhile, Google has tapped Kairos Power's small modular reactor (SMR) tech to supply it with power long term. It'll just be a while before they actually do. Kairos has yet to deliver a working reactor, nor has it obtained the regulatory approval necessary to field one. The first facility is slated for 2030 at the earliest with large-scale deployments expected by 2035.
In the more immediate term, datacenter operators are stuck with existing power supplies, though Google is making investments in geothermal generation to offset the energy required to operate its datacenters in Nevada.
Initially deployed as a 3.5 megawatt pilot, the deal has been expanded to add 115MW of power to the grid, some of which will go to Google facilities in the region. ®
