Is the world ready for the transformational power of fusion? – Fusion is the future of the global energy sector and the first fusion power plant is due to begin operations imminently. – The global race for commercial fusion is on while the fusion-powered future is just beginning.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/fusion-energy-future/
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From the article
>Fusion is the future of the global energy sector — the near future. While it may not happen exactly as we’ve just described, the [first fusion power plant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHCFraq1SKQ) will almost certainly begin operations shortly after President-elect Trump’s second term expires.
Also from the article
>More than 40 fusion startups are speeding towards this goal. Commonwealth Fusion Systems will turn on a demonstration power plant, called SPARC, in 2027. Scientists expect it will first achieve net-positive energy production (Q>1) and eventually generate up to ten times more energy than it consumes or more (Q>10). This will be fusion’s Wright Brothers moment.
Lastly from the article
>The world’s mindset will shift from energy as a constraint to limitless energy, reshaping the geopolitics of energy in its wake. The jump from fossil fuels to fusion energy will inevitably be more profound than the jump from burning wood to burning fossil fuels.
>The global race for commercial fusion is on while the fusion-powered future is just beginning.
“Is the world ready for the transformative power of fusion” ? LOL! More like “is the world ready for many more decades of waiting” . And even if it does materialise, it’ll only be “transformative” for shareholder’s pockets. It’s not gonna be some magical infinite energy font. It’s not going to give us unlimited energy, or make fossil fuels obsolete, or anything like that. All it will be, is one more method of clean energy generation. That’s it.
The only people promising a fusion plant before 2040 are the kind of commercial operations that have promised such things since at least the 90s.
In general the reputable research groups believe there will be at least another research lab generation after ITER before we see any viable prototype plant. The UK’s atomic energy authority believes it can start work on a prototype by 2040 (thats start, not finish) and thats the most aggressive schedule I know of.
And by then renewables will be firmly entrenched and very very cheap. So even it works out fusion could end up an economic white elephant. They are already at or a little beyond economic tipping point.
By the time fusion is commercially available, will it be cheaper than electricity from Chinese-made PV panels hooked up to battery packs?
That was not an informative news article,. It was an advertisement, and pro piece.
I haven’t followed this as closely as others, and while there seems a lot of positive movement it still seems far from mass production at economic costs to me? They achieved net positive, that’s great, breakthrough, but for power plants what matters is how much it costs to generate and deliver a certain amount.
I’d be a lot more. Impressed if the article focused less on “Q7” and more on cost per gigawatt compared to, say, coal. We won’t replace that old dirty technology is fusion is 4 times the cost.
I am hopefully, but far less optimistic than this vanity piece.
If you consider the age of the mankind, 30 years is practically imminent.
something that should free humanity will be used to profit a few at the expense of the many. there is no other mode of capitalism.
Cheaper energy for them to produce but will it be cheaper for us to use!?
Doesn’t this make all solar panels and in fact all other power generation useless? Limitless electricity to heat our homes with.
Who’s going to read this and explain quickly why this article is click bait nonsense?
“Don’t get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It’s just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there’s an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it’s wireless!”
~ William McDonough
Wake me up when there’s actual news, not these bathtub farts.
>…will almost certainly begin operations shortly after President-elect Trump’s second term expires.
This might be true – if Trump’s second term lasts for 30+ years (in which case we have more problems to deal with).
This is 100% sensationalized clickbait practically flat out lying of a headline!
I’ve jumped in on a number of fusion posts and have been trying to spread facts. So far the ones I’ve seen have had skeptics calling them out but also not fully understanding the nuance.
Here? This title is just 100% sensationalized clickbait. This is extremely misleading. Fusion has a long way to go and this headline definitely wants you to think that impact is coming soon – it is not.
We’ve had minor – very VERY significant but relatively modest progress recently. This is huge news because we kinda didnt have really any or much progress at all for a long while.
In the last few years we’ve gone from never producing ANY energy to producing a bit, as well as separately having extended our ability to sustain SOME of the extreme conditions required for fusion to 48 seconds.
We’re working on pieces, and they’ll certainly come together in the future but this headline makes you think that this fusion plant is akin to building an apartment block.
That is *not* the case