China is racing with the West to commercialise the revolutionary clean energy. A Shanghai-based start-up wants to raise $500mn for the development of cheaper nuclear fusion technologies.
Since decades, nuclear fusion – where hydrogen isotopes fuses after being heated at extreme temperatures and releasing energy – has the potential to produce abundant emissions-free power without long-lasting radioactive waste.
Energy Singularity was founded in 2021 and has been working on a tokamak that is expected to be the core of fusion power stations.
According to the Fusion Industry Association, a US-based organization, at least 45 companies from around 13 countries are working to commercialise nuclear fusion using diverse technologies and fuel sources.
The technology is not yet mature and there are no guarantees that fusion power plants can be realized. The machines that have been developed so far barely generate enough energy to heat a kettle.
Energy Singularity co-founder and chief operating officer Ye Yuming said that the company’s strategy was inspired by the work of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
The US engineers have developed a small tokamak that uses high-temperature (HTS) superconducting material to encase plasmas of isotopes heated at temperatures higher than the sun.
Ye said: “Our judgement was that this was more of an engineering than a science problem.” He added, “All tokamaks use the same physics in order to achieve fusion energy.” We can significantly reduce the size and cost of the machine by using the HTS magnet.
Energy Singularity, which is led by Ye, believes that US rival groups have “a much better” funding climate. However, Energy Singularity will be able leverage China’s extensive supply chains of key fusion materials including HTS. About 95 percent of the materials used in its first device, called the Honghuang70 or HH70 were made locally, according to the company. This highlights the “long-term accumulation of advantages” in Chinese nuclear technology.
“We are able to save money on everything, from materials, staff and equipment, to office space. . . We think that the cost of building the same machine in China is at least 50% lower than in the US,” Ye stated.
He did note that “there may be some uncertainty in the scientific community” as technology continues to advance towards stronger magnetic fields.
Energy Singularity has raised approximately $110mn for the development of the HH70. The first operational announcements were made in June. HongShan Ventures and Lanchi Ventures, the former China subsidiaries of Sequoia Capital Group and BlueRun Ventures respectively, were amongst the institutional backers.
The company has about 135 staff and aims to raise $500 million in future funding rounds to help develop the HH170 nuclear fusion device by 2027. The device will be bigger and generate more power. The company plans to commercialise this technology by 2035.
Ye is confident that he can raise the money from investors in the locality despite the US-China tensions, which have impacted the funding climate.
He said, “Yes, it’s a challenge, but we can reach $500mn if we put in the effort.”
Ye stated that Energy Singularity had “dialogue” with groups backed by the state about potential investments.
The group has signed collaboration contracts with Chinese institutions and Universities, including Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWI), Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Lanzhou University.
He said that the private sector was moving more quickly to make nuclear fusion commercially viable.
We designed, built and operated our machine in just two years. This is much shorter than the time it takes for universities or research institutes to build a typical tokamak.
Yang Zhao, a Tsinghua University grad, founded the company along with Dong Ge and Yang Zhao, former Peking University students who studied at Stanford University, Princeton University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, respectively. Li Zhuyong was a former electrical engineering professor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
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