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Focused Energy buys two of the world’s most powerful lasers for its fusion quest
Fusion power startup Focused Energy has signed a deal to purchase two of the world’s most powerful lasers, exclusively revealing this information to TechCrunch. The massive lasers will be installed in the company’s future facility, which is currently under construction in the San Francisco Bay Area over the next two years.
According to CEO Scott Mercer, these high-power lasers are some of the highest-average-power lasers in private company hands. With a combined price tag of nearly $40 million, it’s no wonder that Focused Energy has been secretive about this significant investment.
The acquisition is part of the startup’s pursuit of inertial confinement fusion, where multiple laser beams converge to compress a fuel pellet to the point where its contents fuse and release energy. This method was first proven to be capable of achieving net-positive fusion power at the U.S. government’s National Ignition Facility over two years ago.
However, there are still significant hurdles to overcome in order for commercialization. The current state-of-the-art inertial confinement system is limited by the number of “shots” it can perform each year – about 300. Focused Energy aims to increase this capacity exponentially with its new laser acquisition.
To put this into perspective, if successful, this would not only revolutionize energy production but also enable a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and help combat climate change.
The company’s main challenge currently is scaling up the manufacturing of these lasers quickly enough. “We set our target for 2035,” said Mercer. “It’s mostly conditioned on how quickly can we start to move towards laser manufacturing at scale?”
With this latest investment, Focused Energy seems poised to make significant strides in achieving its ambitious goals.
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Source: techcrunch.com
