Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

[Skipjack]

They raised another 500 million based on Trenta's results. They are going to use that to accelerate their development and demonstrate net electricty from fusion in 2024!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/05/sam-alt ... nergy.html

[Skipjack]

Another article on Helion:
https://www.ft.com/content/dcb75a56-ca2 ... 483979bf34

[crowberry]

Thar is really good news! They have a lot of confidence in putting up a goal of showing net electricity in 2024 with their Polaris device still being constructed! It will be interesting to follow how their plans will work out.

Hopefully their SOFE 2021 contributions will be made public after the conference.

[Skipjack]

Hopefully their SOFE 2021 contributions will be made public after the conference.

David told me that they will be public for 60 days after the conference. I guess their latest results were even better than what they are planning to present at SOFE. According to David, this is why they got the 500 million today.

[crowberry]

This is the announcement from Helion Energy: https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/a ... fundraise/.

[crowberry]

David told me that they will be public for 60 days after the conference. I guess their latest results were even better than what they are planning to present at SOFE. According to David, this is why they got the 500 million today.

Thanks Skipjack! Those results will be very interesting to read.

[Carl White]

This is the announcement from Helion Energy: https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/a ... fundraise/.

From the announcement text:

We have a long road ahead of us with many very difficult challenges

This tempers my enthusiasm. I wonder what their list of "very difficult challenges" has on it.

[Skipjack]

This is the announcement from Helion Energy: https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/a ... fundraise/.

From the announcement text:

We have a long road ahead of us with many very difficult challenges

This tempers my enthusiasm. I wonder what their list of "very difficult challenges" has on it.

That is David being his usual, careful self (and that is IMHO a good thing). He is normally very reserved about making announcements and predictions like these. If he does, he must be VERY sure of this.

From what I understand, one of the biggest challenges is materials. In order to get to 1 cent/kWh, they will have to reduce the damages done to their generator. They were originally planning for 4 cents/kWh, btw.

The other challenge is probably on the power supply side (that is my guess from conversations I have had). They need to get >1Hz repetition rate and sustain that for years. The higher the rep rate, the more efficient their system becomes (and the more power it produces).
I imagine sustaining that rate at a high power throughput will be demanding. Remember the caps don't just have to put energy into the machine, they also have to take net energy back.

[crowberry]

This article from GeekWire by Lisa Stiffler has some more details: https://www.geekwire.com/2021/interest- ... o-founder/.

[Carl White]

This article from GeekWire by Lisa Stiffler has some more details: https://www.geekwire.com/2021/interest- ... o-founder/.

Axios reported that Helion is now valued at $3 billion.

[Skipjack]

A few more details at techcrunch:
https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/05/helio ... lustwitter

[mvanwink5]

Congratulations are fully in order to SkipJack who has stuck with Helion for all these years, giving us invaluable insights into the progress of Helion.

The timeline is critical as the push to kill fossil is needlessly harsh, when the solution to transition to fusion is near term and would enable the moving away from fossil to be done without the catastrophic economic results being pushed by the Hard Left.

There are other fusion projects that are being pursued, but their time lines are not as aggressive. If just one project comes in this early, the thinking about fusion will have an epic impact on the plans of Utilities.

Again, thank you to SkipJack for keeping us abreast of Helion's progress.

[Skipjack]

Thanks bud! I did not do much
All of this (not just Helion, but what is happening in fusion in general) is just as exciting for me as it is for everyone else here. Helion is a great company and David and his team are great people (who really deserve this).
But I think that the market will be big enough to support not just one, but several fusion companies, all with their own strengths. I think that the next 3 years will see fusion booming in a way that few people (maybe the most optimistic ones here) would have predicted. The dot com boom will be a mere footnote compared to what is coming. Take my word for it!

[mvanwink5]

SJ, Great thanks are definitely warranted for your unceasing efforts to keep those of us on the board abreast of what was happening in Helion. There has been many significant, major insights into Helion's plans that you have shared.
Again, thank you.

Helion's aggressive time table will no doubt spur others to ante up. LOL

PS Others have also worked to help us better understand fusion and keep us up to date. Thanks to them also.

[Skipjack]

FAQ has been updated on the Helion website. Not that much new information there, but a few things are clearer now. That includes the purpose and scope of Polaris.