The year 2024 marks a pivotal shift for fusion technology from basic research to commercial application, with the planned construction of the first commercial fusion demonstrators. These smaller facilities aim to prove the technology works at scale and achieve net energy gain, a critical milestone first demonstrated in a 2022 experiment at the National Ignition Facility.
Major national strategies, particularly in the US and UK, are advancing fusion through significant public funding and public-private partnerships, attracting over $5 billion in private investment in recent years. This support is fueling progress, with several companies planning new demonstration facilities in 2024.
Industry momentum is strong, with companies targeting grid delivery in the 2030s and securing early commercial agreements, indicating fusion is transitioning from a scientific dream to a tangible future energy source.
Main Topics: Transition to commercial fusion demonstrators in 2024; the achievement and significance of net energy gain; national strategies and investment in fusion; industry progress and future timelines.
In 2024, fusion technology will finally make the transition from basic research to commercial application. The reason for that will be the construction and completion of the first commercial fusion demonstrators. These cutting-edge facilities are smaller than fusion power plants. For instance, a laser-based fusion demonstrator might use five to ten laser beams, while a commercial power plant can use several hundred. However, they have a crucial role—to prove that fusion technology works on a small scale, paving the way for the construction of larger fusion-power plants. In 2024, they will do just this, starting to build devices that will finally achieve the elusive goal of energy gain– in other words, outputting more energy than the quantity needed to kickstart the fusion process. Hitting this milestone is a critical step in addressing the steeply increasing global energy demand, as fusion energy has the potential to provide an abundant, carbon-free source of power.
In 2022, researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California became the first to demonstrate experimentally that a fusion process could indeed produce a net energy gain. This experiment used high-power lasers to deposit energy in a small fuel target—a millimeter-sized capsule containing frozen deuterium and tritium—creating the conditions for fusion to occur. The lasers delivered 2.05 megajoules of energy to the target, resulting in a fusion energy production of 3.1 megajoules. This was a scientific experiment—unlike fusion demonstrators, the NIF is not designed to operate continuously like a power plant. However, as a result of this scientific breakthrough, nuclear fusion has attracted considerable research, political, and investor attention in recent months.
National fusion strategies have been developed in the US, UK, Japan, Germany, and other countries to advance research and testing of the technology. Currently, the US and the UK are leading the race: The US Department of Energy funds fusion research with an annual budget of about $1.4 billion and encourages private enterprises to accelerate commercialization. The UK similarly fosters public-private partnership by raising a fusion cluster with universities and companies combining their expertise. High-profile investors recognize the opportunity of fusion technology, with over $5 billion of private capital flowing into fusion companies in the last two years.
The initiatives are bearing fruit: Several fusion companies worldwide, including Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion Energy, and General Fusion have announced plans to begin constructing facilities in 2024 to demonstrate their technological approach. According to the latest report by the Fusion Industry Association, over half of all fusion companies believe that fusion energy will be delivered to the public power grid during the 2030s. In May 2023, Microsoft signed a power purchase agreement with Helion Energy, to secure a supply of fusion-generated electricity by 2028. In August 2023, Marvel Fusion (a fusion energy firm I cofounded) announced a partnership with Colorado State University worth $150 million, the largest public-private partnership to date, with the aim of building the only laser facility tailored to a commercial laser-based fusion technology and the most powerful short-pulse laser system in the world. With these advances and commitments in place, 2024 is set to show that fusion is no longer a distant dream but an achievable future of clean and sustainable energy.
Meridiano
