TAE Technologies in Foothill Ranch is looking for a site in the Irvine area to carry out its next step toward developing nuclear fusion energy, a long-sought goal that promises nearly limitless supplies of power to generate electricity.
Chief Executive Michl Binderbauer leads the $5 billion-valued company pursuing what many people call the “holy grail” of future energy needs.
The company is using a giant machine known as “Norman” that is about the size of two double-decker buses, currently operating at approximately 70 million degrees for a benchmark. The work is still in the experimental stage.
The next machine it builds will be called Copernicus and will be located at the new site and is expected to be ready within few years, Binderbauer told the Business Journal on Feb. 25.
“We think by around mid-decade we will have that built,” he said. “We’re in fact right now negotiating for a good-size building in central Orange County to do that, in the Irvine area,” said Binderbauer, a Business Journal 2021 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award winner.
Full-Scale Plant
“We’re currently looking a couple of buildings that could meet this in the Irvine area.”
He hopes for a decision later this month or in April, with construction expected to begin in the fall.
The company says that ideally, it would like 175,000 square feet of mixed-used space solely for the use of its “next-generation reactor.” That would include separate lab, office and warehouse space.
TAE currently leases about 140,000 square feet over three buildings in its hometown. It will keep the current site even after the Copernicus facility is opened.
Binderbauer said the lessons from Copernicus—named after the Renaissance scientist from Poland—will let the company build a full-scale power plant that “we think we will be able to bring online somewhere toward the late part of the 2020s—2028 or 2029, somewhere there.”
The full exploitation of fusion energy still has a long ways to go and is still somewhat akin to a “moon shot” in its lofty aims. TAE expects early commercialization to begin in the 2030s, with a gradual and then increasing penetration into commercial markets that will go through mid-century.
With one of the company’s power plants, Binderbauer has said, “you could make copious amounts of power at economic rates with no detriment to the environment. That is, in a nutshell, why it’s so important and why people are willing to invest gobs of money. It’s the holy grail of energy.”
The company says the whole fusion process is “incredibly safe” with absolutely no chance of a nuclear accident.
From a scientific viewpoint, fusion is the same energy process that powers the sun and the stars.
OC Tech
While scientists in several countries are on the difficult hunt for fusion energy, TAE has kept its work in the relative quiet of Foothill Ranch.
Chief Marketing Officer Jim McNiel explained: “OC has a long history of tech innovation and a solid talent pool. UCI is a close friend and an amazing resource in finding young talent.”
“The majority of our summer interns come from UCI. We typically hire 2-3 people each year from UCI,” McNiel said.
The company has received nearly $900 million in funding to date, with support coming from companies including Google, Kuwait Investment Fund, Goldman Sachs and one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, NEA of suburban Washington.
TAE has been using a Google algorithm to greatly cut down the development time.
CEO Binderbauer said he expects to announce “sizeable” additional funding soon.
TAE has about 250 employees in OC, with about 100 overseas.
The company has created several related businesses as a result of its research, including technologies to fight certain types of cancer, and will also be moving into e-mobility and associated power management infrastructure.
