General Fusion Secures $49.3 Million to Transform Clean Energy
One of Canada’s most innovative cleantech companies has picked up a serious piece of funding to continue innovating the way that fusion energy is created.
General Fusion has received $49.3 million in funding from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund to continue building out safe and sustainable fusion energy solutions. The new funding will go towards the creation of 400 new jobs as well as increased partnerships with post-secondary institutions.
“This investment by Canada in General Fusion’s transformative clean energy technology is evidence of its commitment to meeting the country’s climate change goals while fostering truly sustainable growth—sustainable growth that will be powered by the disruptively competitive economics and environmentally responsible benefits of fusion energy,” said Christofer Mowry, CEO, General Fusion.
Based in Burnaby, General Fusion has an incredibly lofty goal of prototyping a large-scale energy plant that can demonstrate a practical approach to producing electricity form fusion energy. The process has to be affordable, create an abundant source of energy, be safe, and above all, be emission-free.
“This Strategic Innovation Fund investment and Canada’s expectation for a financial return on this investment are a vote of confidence in General Fusion’s ability to successfully commercialize its technology and in our ability to deliver new jobs and new opportunities throughout British Columbia and across Canada,” said Mowry. “We are grateful to Canada for its long-standing support of the company, support that has helped General Fusion become the world’s most advanced private fusion technology venture.”
General Fusion uses fusion reactions to release energy from superheated hydrogen gas, then captures that energy and converts it to electricity. This means there is no release of carbon dioxide emissions or nuclear waste, which qualifies the company as a cleantech leader.
Right now, General Fusion’s next goal is to create a demonstration plant. They will need over $400 million to do so, factoring in costs of construction and R&D.
Late last year, General Fusion deployed the world’s largest plasma injector, successfully proving to investors and the world that they can scale to the size of a plant if need be.
