TAE Technologies, seeking to harness the same energy process that powers the sun, has raised another $150 million to fund its next stage reactor that is under construction in Irvine.
With financial support from companies including Google and Chevron Technology Ventures, TAE aims to deliver commercial fusion power for electricity production starting in the early 2030s.
“Fusion has the potential to transform the energy landscape, providing near-limitless clean power at a time when the world’s energy needs are growing exponentially due to the growth of AI and data centers,” TAE Chief Executive Michl Binderbauer said in a June 2 statement.
The latest round follows what the company in April called a “significant breakthrough” to reduce costs of a power plant. It also signals continued belief by investors that the Foothill Ranch-based company — which now has raised $1.35 billion — is closer to what many consider the holy grail of energy — fusion.
TAE, which has about 500 employees, has the option to raise additional capital as part of the latest funding round, the company said in a June 2 statement.
Google, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), is seeking advanced electricity sources to power its hyperscale data centers as are other companies.
Other investors have included Sumitomo Corp. of Americas, Wellcome Trust, NEA (New Enterprise Associates), and the family offices of Addison Fischer, the Samberg Family, Charles Schwab and others.
Binderbauer, who holds a holds a doctorate in physics from the University of California, Irvine, received an Excellence in Entrepreneurship award from the Business Journal in 2021.
Virtually Unlimited Energy
Fusion produces massive amounts of energy when two atoms crash together to form one heavier atom. In a nutshell, when lighter elements fuse under immense heat and pressure, they form new elements and release a tremendous amount of energy.
That heat will then be sent into a steam generator, which spins a turbine that then drives an electric generator, similar to what happens in operating power plants today.
Earlier this year, TAE announced a “fusion breakthrough that dramatically reduces the cost of a future power plant.”
TAE built a machine called Norm that creates and controls plasma with greater efficiency. The sun is mostly made of plasma.
“The company’s ‘Norm’ breakthrough – achieving stable plasma at over 70 million degrees centigrade in a simplified fusion device – was made possible in part through TAE’s more than decade-long collaboration with Google,” TAE said on June 2.
The company in April said experimental results published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications “prove TAE has invented a streamlined approach to form and optimize plasma.”
Norm’s goal is to validate operating modes and components to be used on the company’s next-generation reactor prototype, Copernicus, which is expected to demonstrate the viability of TAE’s approach before the end of the decade. If it goes to plan, Copernicus will be followed by Da Vinci, TAE’s first prototype commercial power plant, starting in the early 2030s.
The Technical, Economic Challenges
TAE, founded in 1998, is one of several businesses and government-backed groups worldwide racing to provide virtually unlimited fusion energy.
It’s an industry that has a lot of skeptics.
“Since the 1950s, there’s been this quest to build a power reactor, an energy generator using fusion in the lab,” Charles Seife, a New York University journalism professor and author of the book “Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking,” was quoted as telling Slate in 2022.
He added: “Throughout that time, scientists thought that it was just a decade or two from being reality, but that keeps moving forward.”
In January, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said there are “technical, economic, and other challenges” to fusion energy.
“The Department of Energy’s Fusion Energy Sciences program has started investing in public-private partnership initiatives and taken steps to develop a fusion energy strategy,” the office said. “But Energy hasn’t developed metrics or timelines to guide its efforts. Doing so is vital to scaling up fusion energy technologies for commercial use.”
Google, TAE Join Forces
Since 2014, TAE and Google Research have worked together to accelerate fusion science using cutting-edge machine learning.
“This latest fundraise further validates TAE’s distinctive approach to commercial fusion,” TAE said in its statement on June 2.
Google engineers worked onsite at TAE facilities to co-develop advanced plasma reconstruction algorithms, leading to significantly improved plasma lifetime and performance.
Google’s renewed commitment to TAE follows a thorough technical and commercial evaluation of TAE’s distinctive fusion approach.
“We’re investing for a cleaner energy future with TAE Technologies, a leading nuclear fusion company,” Ross Koningstein, the engineering director emeritus at Google Research, wrote in a blog post on June 2.
TAE Technologies has been applying its scientific advances to other areas as well. The company has spun off units that develop innovations that support intelligent power management systems, TAE Power Solutions, and next-generation treatment for cancer patients, TAE Life Sciences.
Copernicus Fusion Reactor Construction ‘On Track’ in Irvine
TAE Technologies is now constructing its new research reactor at 9740 Irvine Blvd. in Irvine. The machine is named Copernicus after the renowned 16th century Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
The property is near the intersection of Irvine Boulevard and Alton Parkway on the eastern edge of the former El Toro Marine base, near an Amazon distribution facility.
TAE said on June 2 that Copernicus “is on track.”
A company spokesperson told the Business Journal: “Working on a 3-year project timeframe for Copernicus to get to our net energy milestone before the end of the decade.”
Looking even beyond Copernicus, the company aims to deliver its first commercial fusion power for electricity production starting in the early 2030s with a prototype reactor called Da Vinci.
The spokesperson said a site for Da Vinci has not been chosen yet.
—Kevin Costelloe
Nuclear Fission vs. Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is not to be confused with nuclear fission, which splits a larger atom into two smaller atoms to help produce electricity, a process used at traditional nuclear power plants.
Fission has been at the heart of nuclear catastrophes, including the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
TAE says its process is safer than conventional nuclear power because fusion can be stopped at any time – eliminating the risk of a power plant meltdown.
—Kevin Costelloe
Google Eager for TAE Fusion Success
Google has been backing TAE Technologies for more than a decade, both with financing and engineering support.
The reason is simple: Google and other companies have an increasingly great demand for electricity.
CEO Michl Binderbauer cites growing energy demand due to AI and data centers.
Industry-focused Data Centre Magazine was even more to the point in a posting on June 9 about the TAE-Google collaboration.
“The partnership comes as Google continues to confront mounting energy demands from AI and data center operations that have driven greenhouse gas emissions up 48% since 2019,” the magazine said on its website.
