Focused Energy Announces Plans to Build State-of-the-Art Laser Fusion Development Facility in the San Francisco Bay Area

Laser fusion company to site $65 million facility in the Bay Area, attracting world-class talent and building on the historic breakthrough achieved at the National Ignition Facility in 2022

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Focused Energy, the company pursuing the most proven path to commercially viable fusion, today announced plans to site a state-of-the-art Laser Development Facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The facility, which will also serve as the company's U.S. headquarters, will house the world's most advanced high-energy prototype inertial fusion lasers critical to developing commercially viable fusion and unlocking limitless, clean energy.

"Focused Energy is building this facility in the Bay Area because it will enable us to draw from the incredible pool of talent in the region as we pursue our work to commercialize fusion," said Focused Energy CEO Scott Mercer.  "To date, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, remains the only fusion facility that has achieved net energy gain. Focused Energy is building on that work with several of the very same scientists that achieved the historic breakthrough. Now – with this new facility – we will optimize the laser technology and begin to build the global supply chain needed to take fusion from the pages of science fiction to the realm of real-world engineering."

Today, there's a growing gap between the world's decarbonization goals and rising energy needs. Baseload power demand, in fact, is projected to double between now and 2050 as a result of factors including increasing standards of living in the developing world, the electrification of transportation, and the adoption of AI powered by energy-hungry data centers. Commercial fusion is the only viable solution to the challenges of increasing baseload power to sustain economic growth while decarbonizing the economy.

Focused Energy is pursuing the most promising route to commercial fusion with the top scientific and engineering minds using the most proven technologies. The company's approach –  direct drive laser fusion – builds upon the path breaking work conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Lab that achieved net energy gain for the first time in December 2022.

Focused Energy is developing low-cost, millimeter-scale deuterium/tritium fuel targets ("pearls") and modular laser arrays optimized for high repetition rate and efficiency. Focused Energy already has established a fuel targetry lab in Darmstadt, Germany. Now, this new Bay Area facility will help optimize the efficiency of the lasers and establish the global supply chain needed to support commercial fusion at scale.  

Once in production, three soda cans worth of deuterium/tritium fusion fuel will be able to power a city the size of San Francisco for a day. 

Ultimately, Focused Energy will bring the fuels and lasers together, first in an integrated engineering facility to test and optimize target design and laser and target technology, and later in a pilot plant that will produce fusion power at commercial scale.

"The fusion revolution will enable us to build a future that unlocks a new era of economic growth while also putting us on a realistic path toward decarbonization," said Mercer. "If humanity's first foray into energy was the discovery of fire, harnessing fusion will be its culmination. We have the power to harness the universe's own source of energy within the next decade. And we will all be far better for it."

Focused Energy has raised more than $175 million in private capital and public grant funding. It is one of eight fusion companies selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for funding under the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. Additionally, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has supported the company's research and development efforts through significant grants.

About Focused Energy

Focused Energy is the leading laser-driven fusion company pursuing the most promising path to clean, limitless fusion power. The global company, based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Darmstadt, Germany, has brought together the top scientific and engineering minds using proven technologies to unlock fusion power at commercial scale. Focused Energy is working to unleash the next chapter of economic growth and scientific innovation through the widespread adoption of clean, abundant fusion power. To learn more, visit focused-energy.world.

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SOURCE Focused Energy