Can Fusion Technology Help to Make Clean Energy Cheaper?
Despite the advances in solar and wind energies in recent years, 80 percent of the world still relies on fossil fuels as its source of energy. However, it is now generally accepted this needs to change. This has spurred the search for a clean and cheap energy source. Fusion as an alternate energy source Enter fusion, tipped as a hot contender for the world’s energy source that could replace fossil fuels. That this source of energy is being taken up seriously is evident from the funding of fusion startups by billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen and Peter Thiel in the past few years. They have established pioneering companies, such as General Fusion and TAE Technologies. Despite the setback suffered by the National Ignition Facility (the US fusion effort continuing for the past over two decades), new fusion concepts are being funded, and the research is taking a new direction. Moreover, the fusion research has entered the garage, where hobbyists can be seen fusing atoms and giving a fillip to a growing amateur fusion movement.