DOE to award $30M to develop fusion energy

The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $30 million in funding for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program called Breakthroughs Enabling Thermonuclear-fusion Energy (BETHE).

These projects will support the development of viable fusion energy. Controlled fusion has long been viewed as an ideal energy source. It has the potential to generate clean energy, but technical challenges and costs have hindered development. The BETHE program will focus on developing new, lower-cost fusion energy, technology to lower the cost of existing fusion concepts, and improvements to existing fusion R&D capabilities.

“Successfully developing lower-cost fusion energy concepts would ensure U.S. leadership in this potentially game-changing energy technology,” ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski said. “Deployable, commercially viable fusion would offer reliable, low-carbon power.”

The program will also have a technology-to-market focus, which means it will seek to develop a path to fusion commercialization through public, private, and philanthropic partnerships.

The program will build off of ARPA-E’s first fusion program — Accelerating Low-Cost Plasma Heating and Assembly (ALPHA) — by seeking to mitigate the scientific and technical risks facing lower-cost fusion concept developers. The ALPHA program — which focused on the development of components to demonstrate methods of reaching fusion conditions – got some interest by private fusion companies. Still, more work needed to be done to develop a grid-ready fusion demonstration.