Nuclear fusion, a new energy source that can generate electricity

The global energy demand is projected to grow 47% by the year 2050. The world-proven oil reserves will only last another 47 years, despite fossil fuels still being the largest energy source. The future energy gap can't be closed without the help of new energy storage methods, such as hydrogen, over the next 30 years, according to researchers. It is for this reason that researchers are in a race to a new energy source with zero carbon emissions, called nuclear fusion.

Companies like Microsoft, Jeff Bezos, and Amazon are betting on a $10 trillion energy solution for the planet with investments in fusion energy startups like Focused Energy, Commonwealth Fusion CFS and General Fusion. These are just a few of the startups in the nuclear fusion space. One other startup that has been developing nuclear fusion technology for the past couple of years is Renaissance Fusion, a Grenoble, France-based startup.

In a seed funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital, Renaissance Fusion raised €15 million $16.4 million, with participation from European investors including HCVC, Positron Ventures and Norrsken. Renaissance Fusion will use the fresh cash infusion to triple its workforce to 60 and purchase additional equipment it needs to facilitate R&D and conduct its first experiments on the way to commercialize the technology.

Renaissance Fusion was founded just two years ago and is focused on developing parts that can be used in nuclear fusion reactors. Renaissance Fusion is the first magnetic confinement fusion startup in continental Europe.

Nuclear fusion uses the power of an artificial star on the planet Earth to generate electricity and has great advantages over current sources of energy because nuclear fusion produces no carbon, sulfur, or nitrogen emissions, unlike the existing nuclear reactor that uses nuclear fission.

Nuclear fusion is a process in which energy is produced by smashing together light atoms. Nuclear fusion could be a cheap, clean, and almost boundless source of energy. A tablespoon of liquid hydrogen fuel containing deuterium and tritium, for example, would produce the same energy as 28 tons of coal.

The startup is building high-temperature superconducting coils called stellarators from Stella Latin for star, which is the most efficient, steady, and stable fusion reactor on earth, to demonstrate net fusion electricity. These stellarators generate strong magnetic fields, allowing a smaller reactor to achieve the same performance as a larger one.

Three main approaches are close to demonstrating net fusion electricity. Laser fusion compresses a capsule to very high pressures by means of powerful lasers. The startup explains on its website that tokamaks and stellarators are doughnut-shaped devices that magnetically levitate hot ionized gases plasmas and heat them to temperatures hotter than the Sun.

Renaissance Fusion plans to sell both technologies at the end of 2024, which is currently a pre-revenue stage. The pieces of the company's technology can be applied to other industries that require strong magnetic fields, such as medical imaging and energy storage, with very minor modifications.

We are proud to support Francesco Volpe and his team in the emergence and industrialization of a disruptive solution in energy production and distribution technologies in France and Europe. Alexis Houssou, Founder and Managing Partner at HCVC, said in a statement that Grenoble is a highly strategic location that allows them to benefit from a favorable environment for the development of nuclear energy, a strong ecosystem such as the CEA and an unrivaled pool of talent.