News: zap energy, a start-up in Seattle, is approaching the prospect of fusion energy. The company announced two milestones on Wednesday: its latest prototype equipment has produced plasma, an overheated gas required for fusion, and raised $160million in new funds with the support of Bill Gates’ breakthrough energy investment company and two oil giants.
Zap energy has offices in Everett and Mukilteo, Washington., Since its launch in 2017, about US $200million has been raised.
Challenge: nuclear fusion, a carbon free and infinite energy source safer than atomic fission, has been the Holy Grail in the energy field for decades. The ultimate fusion reactor is the sun. Amateurs, even a middle school student, can make fusion reactions.
However, the obstacle proved to be insurmountable so far is to generate continuous fusion in a system that generates more energy than is required for operation and effectively captures the released energy.
Companies around the world are using a range of equipment to solve fusion problems, from a large shoebox size to France’s large International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Zap energy uses a smaller and simpler technology to generate plasma using shear flow stabilized Z-pinch. This method avoids the need of superconducting magnets and high-power lasers.
Breakthrough: zap energy produced plasma in its fourth generation Z-pinch device fuze-q last week. Now, it needs to increase the current flowing through it to “break even” – the point at which it generates more electricity.
The company estimates that 650 Ka (kiloampere) of current is required to achieve the target. At present, it has reached 500 Ka, which is a significant progress. When the team started at the University of Washington, their output was about 50 Ka (compared with about 30 Ka for a lightning bolt).
Zap energy is building a new supercapacitor bank that will be able to generate 1000 Ka electrical pulses. The construction work should be completed before the end of the year.
But even such achievements do not guarantee success. The system needs to be continuously expanded, which may change the physical properties in unexpected ways, thus changing the confinement, compression and stability of the plasma.
“They may be about to make a real breakthrough presentation.”
“That’s the risk. Will things go the way they think?” Chrishansen said that he is a senior scientist studying fusion at the University of Washington and has nothing to do with zap energy’s work.
If the team encounters difficulties, they can modify the settings and try again. The new cash creates longer runways, depending on how the technology performs at higher currents.
“They were one of the first companies in the private sector to come close to achieving [balance of payments],” Hansen said. “They may be about to make a real breakthrough presentation.”
Fusion cluster: zap energy’s new funds help consolidate the Pacific Northwest as a fusion hotspot. In November 2021, Helion, headquartered in Everett, announced that it would provide us $500million, and general fusion, British Columbia, raised US $130million. Avalanche energy in Seattle is a new member of fusion. In March this year, it completed a round of $5million seed projects.
In the south, Tae technology, headquartered in California, raised two rounds of financing last year, with an estimated total amount of US $410million.
Founder: zap energy was co founded by URI shumlak and Brian a.nelson, professors of the University of Washington. Its technology was developed in cooperation with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The third founder is entrepreneur and investor Benjamin Conway. The company has more than 60 employees.
Sponsor: the latest round of zap energy is led by Chris sacca’s lowercarbon capital. New investors include breakthrough, shell ventures, DCVC and valor equity partners. Existing investors also involved include addition, energy impact partners and Chevron technology ventures.
Editor’s note: This report has updated the comments of Chris Hansen of the University of Washington.