Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has announced its first fusion energy power plant, ARC, to be built in Chesterfield County, Virginia. CFS is committed to plugging in 400 megawatts of fusion energy in Virginia in the early 2030s and creating hundreds of jobs for operating the power plant.
The foremost reason to select Chesterfield County, near Richmond, is its big appetite for clean, firm energy, its growing economy, and its skilled workforce. It is big enough, flat, and convenient for transportation. CFS has been probing for a location for the last 2 years, during which they surveyed over 100 locations.
The team at CFS has allied with Dominion Energy Virginia, which will provide development and technical expertise for the power plant. Meanwhile, CFS will furnish them with knowledge about building and operating fusion power plants. This powerful collaboration will enable the best possible shot at getting fusion on the grid.
ARC marks the first time fusion power, is available in the world at a grid scale. It is CFS’ first of thousands of fusion power plants on a mission of delivering fusion energy with the urgency that the energy transition demands.
The company co-founders assert that ARC will enable industries and technologies like deep decarbonization that are limited by energy constraints.
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Background of the ARC
The building of ARC was not a sudden event. The co-founders had it planned since 2018 when working on commercial fusion energy at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. They were riddled with finding a new magnet technology to enable relevant fusion machines during this work. They got this aligned in 2021.
While one team was inventing magnets, the team was working on SPARC; a machine called a tokamak that’ll demonstrate net fusion energy, a milestone called Q>1. During their work on SPARC, parallel, they led a foundational framework for ARC. They planned to execute as soon as SPARC hits Q>1.
“Scaling up a new technology is hard work, but humanity has done it before when motivated by a powerful mission,” says Bob Mumgaard.
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