2024 in Review – Where are We on the Fusion Energy Scorecard?

While advancements abound, uneven progress persists by region.

Dec 09, 2024

Like most evolving technical innovations, fusion energy’s forward progress varies in different parts of the world, and is impacted by occurrences and milestones, many of which are neither scientific or engineering (or even necessarily fusion-related). Let’s investigate some of those milestones and occurrences worldwide, and see what their impacts have been and/or may be on the progress towards commercialization of fusion energy worldwide, and in the leading regions of the world pursuing fusion energy. To provide a level of quantifiability to these, we will rate these on a scale from 1 = “very negative” to 5 = “very positive” (3 = “neutral”), and citing regions if the impact is not the same worldwide.

$1T Fusion Market and Wall Street (WW→4)

We saw increased interest from Wall Street with the FIA and Jefferies led “Scaling Fusion Energy – Industry & Investor Perspectives.” This summit was led by Andrew Holland, CEO of the FIA, and Aniket Shah, Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainable and Transition Strategy at Jeffries. It included speakers from Zap Energy, Thea Energy, Type-One Energy, Avalanche Fusion, Commonwealth Fusion, and General Fusion, who were able to champion their unique methods for commercially viable fusion energy. However, it was clear that everyone wanted a cut to the estimated $1T Fusion energy market.

$1.8B in New/Additional Funding for Commercial Fusion Ventures (US→5; Europe→ 4)

The fusion energy sector has seen substantial financing growth during 2024. Over $1.8B in new fusion energy funding was announced (not including that in China). This is a significant increase compared to 2023, indicating growing investor confidence in fusion energy technologies. These investments span various fusion approaches and development stages, demonstrating broad interest in the potential of fusion as a future commercial power source. Some notable funding rounds in 2024 include:

Pacific Fusion - $900 million Series A (US)
Zap Energy - $130 million Series D (US)
Tokamak Energy - $125 million (Europe)
Xcimer Energy - $100 million Series A (US)
Marvel Fusion - €62.8 million (~$66.4 million) Series B (Europe)
13 other deals ~$400M (mostly US)

Fusion Awareness (WW→4)

Major business publications, including theNew York Times,Bloomberg,Wall Street Journal,Axios,Forbes,CNN,Tech Crunch, andFinancial Times, and many others, are contributing to the global awareness of a future world where plentiful, affordable and clean, fusion energy is part of our everyday lives. This increased media coverage is raising awareness about the potential of fusion energy and shaping public perception and acceptance, which is crucial for the successful adoption of this revolutionary energy source.

Up to $2.5B In Fusion Supply Chain Spend in Next 5 Years (WW→4)

According to theFusion Industry Association, fusion supply chain spendingincreased to over $612M in 2023, over 26% higher than in 2022, and expected their 2024 spend to reflect a similar increase. If one assumes that the $7.6 billion in funding provided to commercial fusion companies is all spent within the next five (5) years AND 20%-33% of this is spent on the supply chain during that same time, we estimate fusion energy supply chain spending should be $1.5B to $2.5B over the next five (5) years, which aligns with the trends noted above by the FIA. Also note that this does not include spend by national/international public fusion efforts. This is a significant boost to a critical part of the overall fusion energy ecosystem.

New Fusion Energy Facilities (US→5; Japan→4; China→4)

In 2024, several public and private fusion facilities were announced or started construction. These facilities are being built worldwide. Some of the new or expanding facilities includeTennessee (Type One), California (Focused Energy,Longview Fusion Energy, andPacific Fusion),Colorado (Marvel), Japan (FAST), and China (CRAFT; a $570M research center).

Regulatory regimes for fusion in the US and China move forward (US→4, China→4)

Both China and the US made progress in the regulation of fusion energy this year. In the US, Helionreceived approval for the operation of its fusion machine, while Commonwealth Fusion Systemsreceived approvalfor its on-site radioactive material management program. Additionally (and perhaps more importantly), theUS ADVANCE Act was passed, providing guidance on fusion energy regulation. In China, the countryadopted a national nuclear framework, including the regulation of fusion. The law, which takes effect in January 2025, also provides for China to be carbon-neutral by 2060.

Donald Trump was elected as the next US President (US→4)

EAST sustained a plasma for 403 seconds (China→4)

In April, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokomak (EAST) in Hefei Chinaset a record for maintaining a hot, confined plasma of 403 seconds (nearly 7 minutes), beating its own record of 101 seconds in 2017. EAST is China’s most advanced reactor today, and was built as part of ITER program. However, as China is “pushed out” of more and more of ITER due to intellectual property concerns, it is using EAST as its testbed for developing fusion technology. The end-goal for EAST is to achieve plasma confinement for up to 1,000 seconds.

ITER’s schedule for D-T fusion slides to 2039 (World→2; Europe→2)

JET sets record for the amount of power produced by fusion (Europe→3)

The Joint European Torus (JET)released 69.26 megajoules (MJ) from 0.21 milligrams of fuel. Unfortunately, JET only reached aQ of 0.67 in this experiment (to be fair, JET was not designed to achieve a Q greater than 1). More importantly, this was also the last experiment at JET, as it was decommissioned shortly thereafter.

Overall Analysis: 2024 Was a Great Year for Fusion Energy, But Progress is Uneven

So… If you were keeping score (and granted, these are just publicly-available data points), here is how many “medals” were handed out based on the events above:

Granted, this is just a sampling of fusion energy's progress in 2024. Furthermore, much of China’s progress is not reported as publicly as that in the West, though one could say that is also true of privately-funded companies versus national labs as well.

With that said, overall things look very good in the US, Japan, and China, while less so in Europe and in ‘worldwide’ efforts. The result of this, as we observed last month in our story “Getting Fusion to the Grid – Differences in Approaches Between Fusion Companies and Research Labs”, is a schism in the approaches between the “grand experiments” in public international labs, and what private companies are doing. In our opinion, this is actually a good thing, as private companies race towards the first instances of making fusion energy commercially available, while national/international public labs provide research into plasma physics and fusion that will likely help improve second-generation commercial fusion machines. Let’s hope 2025 continues to show the acceleration in fusion progress that we saw in 2024.