Company planning prototype as next step toward commercial power plant
Marvel Fusion closed a €62.8m ($70.3m) financing round that will enable the company to continue demonstrating its fusion concept at existing laser facilities and achieve full proof of technology at its Colorado facility by 2027.
The Munich, Germany-based company said that it was also selected by the European Innovation Council and SME’s Executive Agency for its accelerator programme, which entails a €2.5m grant to scale fuel target production along with an equity investment of up to €15m.
Marvel Fusion, founded in 2019, is a private company working to commercialise fusion energy through its laser technology.
Nuclear fusion is the process which gives the Sun its energy. Scientists from more than 50 countries have been trying to recreate it on Earth since the 1960s.
In August the company said it had agreed a $150m venture to create a public-private partnership that will support construction of a next-generation, high-power laser and fusion research facility at Colorado State University.
When completed, the facility will serve as a platform to advance the company’s fusion approach. Developing laser fusion and its potential as a new source of power is critical because of its ability to dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of how energy is supplied globally, Marvel Fusion said, adding the facility will be an “international epicentre” for research into laser fusion energy and high energy density physics.
In parallel to the Colorado partnership programme, Marvel Fusion is planning the construction of a prototype as the next step towards a commercial fusion power plant. The prototype will house hundreds of laser systems capable of achieving fusion ignition and proving the technology at scale.
Marvel Fusion is one of several companies pursuing what is known as inertial confinement fusion. It is the same basic approach used at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a US Department of Energy laboratory that proved in 2022 that controlled fusion reactions could generate more power than it took to ignite them.
But where NIF’s lasers are based on decades-old designs, Marvel is using cutting-edge technology to improve its lasers’ power and efficiency.
Earier this year Germany said it wanted to build a “nuclear fusion ecosystem” made up of industry, startups and science so that a fusion power plant in the country becomes a reality as quickly as possible with a target of having a reactor in operation by 2040 – potentially making it among the first in Europe.
