The reputation of Seattle weather held up during Seattle Fusion Week with cool days, cloudy skies, and a drizzle of rain. When I moved to Seattle for a stint in the PNW, a good friend of mine, a native, advised me to dress in layers and always have a hood, because almost every day has some “hood up” time required. The weather did not disappoint, and it was a small price to pay for creating the green locale that earned the name the Emerald City. The chilly PNW is one of the hotspots for fusion, with Helion, General Fusion, Zap Energy, and Avalanche all driving this industry forward.
The CleanTech Alliance, a key player in the fusion energy industry, once again hosted Seattle Fusion Week. This event brought together the best and brightest to discuss fusion energy, investment strategies, government policy, power delivery, and STEM education. This year, the focus was more on the deployment side versus the technology side. With many fusion solutions racing toward power generation, the discussions centered on what to do with this power when it arrives, how to deploy it, and how to achieve thousands of fusion systems powering terawatts of new, clean power for our grid.
As David Kirtley said in his LinkedIn post, we must begin working on how to deploy the power generated by fusion energy, address the regulatory challenges associated with power lines, and establish a domestic supply chain. During the panel, a representative for Puget Sound Energy said it took “15 years to add capacity to 17 miles of existing power line, let alone build new power lines.” Another panelist commented that the supply chain for power transformers can take up to three years to be delivered, and we have to buy them from Germany. To win the global race for fusion energy, we must remove policy and regulatory obstacles to deployment, invest in the development of an allied nation's supply chain, and establish standards that our industry can rally around to provide scale, enabling the creation of thousands of fusion systems.
A recent article in Power Magazine, “Igniting Fusion: The Key to Closing Our Energy Gap and Powering the Future,” could have been taken from the Seattle Fusion week agenda. It highlighted the urgent need for transformative solutions to address surging U.S. electricity demand (which is projected to rise 78% by 2050 due to AI), electrification, industrial growth, and population increases. Three technologies are racing to address this need in the US today: nuclear fission with next-generation SMRs, liquid natural gas power plants, which are modular and well proven, and fusion energy. As we rapidly drive toward commercial fusion with dozens of pilot plants led by companies such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Helion, Pacific Fusion, Tokamak Energy, Focused Fusion, and Type One Energy, and significant investments from tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon, momentum is building.
The race for fusion is not just a competition, but a crucial endeavor with far-reaching implications. It's a race in many dimensions, and the stakes couldn't be higher.
Can we provide the power that the U.S. and the world need?
Can we harness the power of fusion in a way that's not just effective, but also cost-efficient, beating other technologies to the punch?
Can we outpace the competition and establish fusion as the leading energy source for the next century?
Is the U.S. ready to build the critical technologies and manufacturing capacity needed to scale fusion energy?
And the list could go on. I was encouraged by the progress the industry has made over the past year in terms of technological advances and the construction of new plants. We are seeing federal support for fusion in the U.S. in the new FY27 OMB Memo, which bodes well for our energy future:
Let’s continue to drive forward the fusion future that our nation and planet need.