TDK Ventures co-leads next round of financing in fusion-innovator Type One Energy

Joining them as co-leads are Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. This latest round will be used to scale the development and maturation of the startup’s fusion power-plant concept leveraging continuous operation magnetic confinement.

Led by a seasoned executive and complemented by world-renowned scientists coming from the University of Wisconsin, Oak Ridge National Lab, and Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Type One Energy is tackling the technical challenges that have kept fusion from becoming a practical reality with the latest advances in additive manufacturing and high-temperature superconductor magnets.

Fusion energy, the power of the stars, is inherently safe, because, on Earth, only a fraction of a gram of fuel can be burnt before the process self-terminates, and any off-normal event will lower the temperature of the fuel and extinguish the burn. The same foundation that makes fusion so safe is what also makes the process difficult. To be successful, the right conditions must be met, forcing enough particles together for a long enough period and at a hot enough temperature to enable fusion. The vast majority of fusion concepts involve pulsed operation, which requires a significant development to be used as a steady-state continuous baseload power plant – an ability, when unlocked, would tap into the projected $40-trillion fusion market and change the world.

To resolve these limitations, Type One Energy’s fusion solution leverages stellarator technology, which is based on magnetic-confinement fusion, using carefully 3D-shaped magnetic fields to keep particles at high enough temperatures for nuclei to fuse. This is the most advanced “continuous” fusion reactor concept yet with its largest demonstration project, the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) reactor showing improving results and charting a path toward the energy breakeven. However, to achieve such an effective magnetic field, it has historically been difficult to engineer and manufacture complex geometry non-planar magnets with high precision.

Taking a novel approach to the problem, Type One Energy leverages additive manufacturing and world-renowned expertise to design a system that can overcome the technical engineering challenges of the past. With the founding team consisting of world-renowned scientists, who built some of the world’s most optimised stellarators in the past and spurred on by funding from the US Department of Energy, Type One Energy is already accelerating its technology to create a first ever continuous-operation fusion plant.

“We are honoured to be chosen by TDK Ventures for its sustainable, mission-driven portfolio of companies. Type One Energy will benefit not only from TDK Ventures’ investment, but the support offered by TDK Goodness. We look forward to collaboratively scaling the immensely positive impact which fusion energy promises to have on the future of society and our environment,” said Christofer Mowry, CEO of Type One Energy.

“Fusion represents the possibility of complete energy transformation and decarbonisation, which can provide humanity the bright and green future we are all endeavouring to find,” states Nicolas Sauvage, President of TDK Ventures. “We are proud to co-lead this latest round of financing in Type One Energy and help bring our mutual vision of a more sustainable world to fruition through fusion. The TDK Ventures team is excited to be able to add our TDK Goodness to our capital investment and accelerate their progress.”

“Fusion is the ultimate energy source, and its successful commercialisation will be a huge leap towards achieving clean and abundant energy for everyone,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Advances in stellarator science, including Type One Energy’s ability to execute a stellarator development project, provide the basis for a very exciting and promising path to practical fusion on the grid in the coming decades.”

“Type One Energy has shown the promise of stellarator technology, effectively integrating advances in high-temperature superconductors to deliver a viable path to fusion power at scale,” said Roee Furman, Managing Director at Doral Energy-Tech Ventures. “We at Doral are proud to partner with TDK Ventures as an enabling force with funding and support for Type One Energy’s applied research and continued validation of this exciting technology’s ability to help move us forward on the path to a clean energy future.”

Along with financial backing, TDK Ventures is also providing network and industry exposure, expertise in the energy sector, and rapid commercialisation to expedite and accelerate Type One Energy’s goals to market.

The implications of fusion as a pathway for safe nuclear energy, given past historical events, cannot be overstated. To date, all industrial nuclear power plants have relied on fission – a chain reaction driven process that while excellent for power generation, if left unchecked can result in catastrophic safety concerns such as meltdown. The reason fusion is inherently safe is that it is the opposite process. Atoms are forced together until bonding occurs releasing energy. If any failure occurs, there is no safety issue, only the cessation of power generation. Nuclear power, with no meltdown risk.