Fusion energy startup Focused signs agreement with RWE, German state

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-German startup Focused Energy, which aims to build power plants fueled by fusion, said on Monday it has signed an agreement with RWE and the German state of Hesse on building a plant at a shuttered nuclear fission site.

Focused aims to build a fusion pilot plant at RWE's Biblis site by 2035. Biblis, Germany's oldest nuclear plant, has been shut indefinitely as a result of Berlin's decision to exit nuclear power. Germany's conservatives, winners of the February election, said in energy plans last November it aimed to create a regulatory framework for fusion technology in Germany and Europe.

Focused CEO Scott Mercer said in an interview about the non-binding agreement that the plant "would be the beginning and the learning lesson towards building a supply chain for what would eventually be global deployment."

Fusion, in which two light atoms are jammed together under great pressure to release energy, fuels the sun and stars. Physicists have tried for decades to replicate fusion reactions on Earth with magnets, or lasers, to create a source of energy virtually free of greenhouse gases and long-lasting radioactive waste.

The National Ignition Facility, a U.S. laboratory, achieved in 2022 what is known as a "scientific gain" of energy from fusion reactions, or net energy output from the reaction itself. Scientists hope to achieve "engineering gain" or more energy out of the reaction than went into firing up the lasers and facility in the first place.

Mercer said the combination of interest in fusion from RWE, Germany's coalition government, and Hesse, could provide a partnership to make the laser-driven project a reality.

"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," Mercer said.

Fusion faces many hurdles including a supply chain for lasers, sustaining fusion reactions, and getting released energy onto power grids. Mercer said the solid-state lasers the pilot plant would use are 30 times more efficient than those used by the U.S. lab.

Mercer expects the 1-gigawatt plant to cost 5 billion to 7 billion euros ($5.4 to $7.6 billion) and the costs of subsequent plants to fall dramatically.

Focused said RWE has committed a small amount of money to the project.

The government of Hesse has budgeted 20 million euros for fusion research and development. 

RWE, which did not comment on any investment, said it wants to contribute "by providing our infrastructure at the Biblis site and our experience as an operator of nuclear facilities to advance fusion technology in Germany."

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Marguerita Choy)