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Fusion Reactor Startup Zap Energy Raises $130 Million – ESG Today
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Fusion Reactor Startup Zap Energy Raises $130 Million
ESG Today Writing Staff
October 10, 2024
Zap Energy, which is developing a commercially-viable fusion energy system, announced that it has raised $130 million in a Series D round, with proceeds to be used to advance the company’s efforts to build a commercial fusion power plant. The company also announced that it has begun operations of Century, its new high-rep-rate, liquid-metal-cooled fusion test platform.ֿ
Fusion, the process of combining two atoms to form a single atom to release energy, has been long referred to as the “Holy Grail” of clean and abundant energy production, given its potential to produce power from hydrogen – the most common element in the universe – without producing carbon emissions associated with fossil-fuel based power, and without the highly radioactive output of nuclear fission processes. Large scale fusion energy generation has been elusive, however, given the need to create extremely high temperatures and pressure.
Founded in 2017, Everett, Washington-based Zap Energy is building a cheap, compact, scalable fusion reactor aimed at enabling a faster path to commercially viable fusion, without using magnets The company isattempting to reach a milestone outlined as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which recently announced $46 million in funding to companies advancing designs and research and development for fusion power plants, among them Zap Energy.
Zap’s Century, the company said, is the first fully-integrated demonstration of several fusion power plant-relevant technologies, including one of the largest tests of a plasma-facing liquid metal blanket to date. Century has already demonstrated a test run of more than 1,000 consecutive plasmas in less than three hours into a chamber lined with flowing liquid metal, Zap added.
Zap CEO Benj Conway said:
“The race for fusion commercialization has historically been thought of as a triathlon: science, then engineering, then commercialization. But at Zap, we’re attempting to swim, cycle and run at the same time – such a parallel approach is key to delivering commercial fusion on a timescale that matters. Century is a vital part of the engineering leg and we’re quickly coming up to speed.”
Zap Energy’s fusion approach, known as a sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch, does not require large superconducting magnets and powerful lasers, and is far smaller than conventional systems. To generate net energy from fusion, regardless of the type of device, the plasmas inside must satisfy fusion’s triple product: they must be hot enough, dense enough, and long enough. According to the company, Century is the world’s first 100-kilowatt-scale repetitive Z-pinch system. Its goal is to integrate and test three major aspects of Zap’s power design: repetitive pulsed power supplies, plasma-facing circulating liquid metal walls, and technology for mitigating electrode damage, Zap added. The first test of plasmas and flowing liquid metal occurred on June 13 and a few weeks later completed a run of 1,080 consecutive shots. Century’s next aim is a milestone run for the DOE, which will be subject to confirmation by the program.
ֿ Zap Vice President of Systems Engineering Matthew C. Thompson, said:
“From its inception, Zap Energy’s founders had an idea of how a power plant based on our Z-pinch configuration would work. Our job is to develop and validate those plans by actually building, testing and maturing key technologies. Century is our next major step in that effort.”
The round was led by Soros Fund Management LLC, with participation by new investors that include BAM Elevate, Emerson Collective, Leitmotif, Mizuho Financial Group, Plynth Energy and Xplor Ventures. Current investors participating in the new round include Addition, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, DCVC, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital and Shell Ventures.
ESG Today Writing Staff
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