Google has invested in Germany-based Proxima Fusion as part of a €411 million funding round to build Europe's first commercial nuclear fusion power plant. While acknowledging fusion's potential, Google cautioned about the challenges of commercialization.
Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based startup, has secured €400m (£340m) in state funding from Bavaria to build Alpha, a stellarator nuclear fusion device. The company is pursuing the more complex stellarator approach, which uses twisted magnetic coils to control plasma, competing against the more common tokamak design. Proxima is also bidding for over $1bn in federal funding, with a decision expected next year. The goal is to produce more energy than consumed and eventually create a fusion power plant called Stellaris.
Proxima Fusion, a Munich-based nuclear fusion startup, is developing a stellarator called Alpha based on Germany's Max Planck Institute's W7-X design. The company has secured €400m from Bavaria and is seeking over $1bn in federal funding. Unlike tokamaks, stellarators use twisted magnetic coils to control plasma more easily but are harder to build. Proxima faces competition from 53 other fusion projects worldwide, including the UK's Step spherical tokamak project in Yorkshire.
