Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

[Carl White]

David Kirtley replied to the Helion Energy tweet, adding:

These are going to be some big FRCs! As particle confinement time scales as r^2.9, this going to let us go to even higher temperatures and longer burn times.

[crowberry]

David Kirtley gave a written testimony for the Energy Subcommittee Hearing - From Theory to Reality: The Limitless Potential of Fusion Energy:
https://science.house.gov/2023/6/energy ... ee-hearing. His testimony expresses the confidence that Helion has in what they are doing: https://republicans-science.house.gov/i ... 0308F83E68.

Following Polaris, we will build our first 50 MW fusion power plant, under the world’s first fusion Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), with Microsoft. This plan is slated to come online in 2028, and Constellation will serve as the power marketer for the project.

[ladajo]

This smacks of aspirational thinking. Positive intent, however lacking in feasibility, suitability, and acceptability realms when you peek under the hood. They have a longer way to go than proselytized. However, one must market to keep and gain investment. I get it.

[Skipjack]

This smacks of aspirational thinking. Positive intent, however lacking in feasibility, suitability, and acceptability realms when you peek under the hood. They have a longer way to go than proselytized. However, one must market to keep and gain investment. I get it.

I would not say that they are lacking in feasibility, suitability and acceptability. What makes you think that?
Also, they would be the first to have a full 50 MWe commercial power plant in 2028. I would not call that "longer than proselytized. Also, they are fully funded all the way to commercialization and not looking for more funding.

[mvanwink5]

The only time that I am aware of that Helion has not met their goals is when there was an investment money shortage. That time is over.

[ladajo]

I hope the get to an operating plant in 2028. I do think there is a lot they don't know they don't know, at that puts them at risk on goals.
No matter what, they are going to learn. Also, I would offer, that money flows based on progress, and investors pull out all the time when things don't go 'as planned'. Spending available funding is one thing, having funding is another.

In any event:
Feasibility: It can be done with resources at hand.
Suitability: It does what it is supposed to.
Acceptability: Risk. Is the spend worth the outcome. This one is likely the best of the three, given the potential for learning. However, the outcome remains unknown, and as such is aspirational.

To be clear, I don't want them to stop, and I do want them to succeed. I do not put the odds in their favor yet for success on plan. Building pretty machines is one thing. The pretty machine doing what it is supposed to do is entirely another.

[Skipjack]

To be clear, I don't want them to stop, and I do want them to succeed. I do not put the odds in their favor yet for success on plan. Building pretty machines is one thing. The pretty machine doing what it is supposed to do is entirely another.

All of their previous machines did what they were supposed to do though.

[ladajo]

No argument there, let's see how things go with the scale up.

[Skipjack]

From David Kirtley's talk at SOFE. darn the capacitor banks are huge compared to the fusion core. From what I understand from what David told me, the banks get smaller with higher pulse rates, but I am not sure how all of this fits together with the Microsoft plant.

HelionSOFE01b.jpg (210.39 KiB) Viewed 4643 times

Some spin- off products for the wider fusion community, I guess.

HelionSOFE02b.jpg (114.86 KiB) Viewed 4643 times

[charliem]

When last January Real Engineering published "A New Way to Achieve Nuclear Fusion: Helion" in Youtube, he said they had some extra material, but they did not make it freely available at the moment.

That material was published in DailyMotion a few days ago with free access.

For those interested, here is the link: https://www.dailymotion.com/dm_55bfe497 ... c8ab049430

[Skipjack]

Latest Helion Newsletter is out:

https://mailchi.mp/helionenergy/major-d ... -at-helion

FormationTest02.jpg (72.53 KiB) Viewed 4315 times

We have been moving quickly on several big initiatives over the last few months! It’s incredible to see what our team can do while we scale up major projects in pursuit of Polaris completion and look beyond to the world’s first fusion power plant! In addition to technical progress, we’ve been working on large advancements toward commercial fusion deployment, many of which I’m sure you’ve had a chance to see already. Here’s a recap of the latest ongoing work happening at Helion:
Technical progress

Vela: In May, we completed our largest ever pulsed power test! The test, which we called “Vela” (named after the Vela Pulsar), was designed to demonstrate our newly advanced switching technology repeatedly and at scale. Vela operated at 1 Hz and moved more than 11 GJ total energy through a simulated Polaris compression magnet. This test showed we can pulse Polaris once per second for long durations. For context, Trenta pulsed once every ten minutes. This was a huge win for our team!

Polaris Formation test: We completed construction on our Polaris Formation test last month and have begun initial plasma operations (pictured above). The testing in this machine will allow us to experiment with higher electric field and magnetic flux FRCs and a range of new fuel, diagnostic, pre-ionization, and control technologies!

Capacitor manufacturing: Over the last year, we have been building up our in-house capacitor manufacturing capabilities – and we just hit the triple digit count of in-house capacitors! The team is now working on an assembly line to prepare capacitors for Polaris installation.

Commercial developments

Landmark NRC decision: In April, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced its decision to regulate fusion under a byproduct materials framework (similar to how particle accelerators are regulated). This decision clearly distinguished fusion as separate from fission and creates a path for commercial fusion power plant licensing in the near future.

World’s first fusion PPA: In May we announced that our first fusion power plant will start putting electricity on the grid in 2028 and will provide power to our first customer, Microsoft. This announcement marked the first fusion Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and sets a clear timeline for commercial fusion deployment. I am so proud of our team for their work on this and am thrilled to be working with industry leaders, Microsoft and Constellation, to bring the world’s first fusion power plant to Washington state!

Testifying before Congress: Last month, I spoke alongside my industry peers before the House Energy Subcommittee on Science Space and Technology. The hearing was a great opportunity to outline Helion’s readiness to deploy a first of its kind plant and our request to recognize the need for scaling manufacturing for mass fusion deployment in the 2030s. ICYMI, you can see more about the hearing here.

Clearly, we have been busy! We’re still expecting Polaris to be built early next year. Once it is built, we will begin operations, pushing to demonstrate electricity from fusion for the first time. It will take our whole team (and nearly 50 new team members); if you care about our mission and want to be a part of it, apply to our open positions!

Thank you for your continued support as we advance towards a future powered by clean, sustainable fusion energy.


David
Co-Founder & CEO

[Skipjack]

One small bit of information about the capacitor banks in the drawing. The individual blocks have shielding and fire suppression.

[mvanwink5]

Helion's success is all about execution, making the components and systems such as their power delivery electronics and capacitor banks, and the regular progress updates from Helion are proving their ability to execute and meet milestones. Helion is not conducting a science experiment at this point, rather they have put together an organization that has been honed as a result of years of successful prototype roll outs.

Each of these news letters is encouraging. 2024 is not far off (net electric milestone).

[usesbiggerwords]

If Helion continues down this path of success, and I have seen nothing to make me believe they won't, 2024 will see the opening of the floodgates in terms of investment. It won't just be Microsoft they have a PPA with, but Google, Meta, Netflix... really every power-hungry tech company out there, in additional to licensing agreements to manufacture new machines. It's going to be an exciting time.

[Skipjack]

Each of these news letters is encouraging. 2024 is not far off (net electric milestone).

Just to be clear their net electricity milestone is set for the end of 2024, not the beginning. Polaris will be operational early 2024 (January, they say, but I would not be surprised or upset if it slipped a couple of months). They want to spend 2024 to slowly increase power in the machine and work out any kinks and problems that show up. With a higher pulse rate, they will likely be able to tune it much faster than they were able to do with Trenta. And they are already testing major components now, like the formation section. So they will go into this with a good and solid base.