Investments in fusion energy efforts globally increased for yet another year, but the growth was slower than in the previous two years as many companies in the industry expect funding to be a major challenge in the medium term, the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) said in its annual report.
The fourth annual "Global Fusion Industry Report" showed that $900 million of new funds backed the technology promising zero-emission energy since last year. However, the increase in investments was lower than the 2023 estimated jump of $1.4 billion in new funding and the massive $2.8 billion that the fusion energy industry attracted in 2022 alone.
"Ambitious targets need ambitious resources and a step change in growth will be required once private companies deliver results on their prototype machines," said Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association.
"The growth seen in the last 12 months is positive, but will not be enough to deliver fusion's ambitious goals. The sector needs continued support from public and private investors if it is to continue to innovate."
According to Holland, "The next few years are vital to making the vision of sustainable and abundant fusion energy a reality."
Although nuclear fusion has been long recognized as totally carbon- and by-product-free and the source atoms in hydrogen are abundant on Earth, replicating the Sun's natural processes of fusion energy generation on Earth has been a challenge for decades.
Fusion is the natural process that heats the Sun and all other stars, in which a huge amount of energy is produced by the fusion of light atoms, such as those in hydrogen, into heavier elements like helium.
Nuclear fusion has long been considered the answer to zero-emission by-product-free energy generation. However, no one has cracked the nuclear fusion code yet because of the challenges associated with the environment in which the process could take place.
Recent breakthroughs in the U.S. have encouraged more R&D efforts in America and elsewhere, including in China.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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