Helion Energy to demonstrate net electricity production by 2024

[Skipjack]

Yep, they are definitely prototyping a manufacturing plant for their future machines with Polaris. They have been experimenting with various ways to build the quartz tubes and capacitors. Quite a learning process there, from what I gather. Not just the actual manufacturing but also the supply chain.

[Skipjack]

Helion updated their news page with a blog section. We have seen the blog posts before but they are now finally accessible from the main site:
https://www.helionenergy.com/news/

[crowberry]

I have heard that being said by people from Helion before. It is interesting because it suggests that Trenta was already powerful enough for at least some theoretical net electricity, if it had had the equipment for it. My guess from D-T fusion, not D-He3.
Polaris will confirm whether their energy recovery works as expected. I am quite certain that it will.

IMO, the key Polaris goals are to develop, prove, actually make the manufacturing plant to produce commercial machines. Yes, Polaris with the larger diameter & over all size will need tuning, electronic power systems, etc, but Helion is hard at work developing *how to make these fusion machines* economically. For example, production of capacitors, large quartz vacuum cylinders, power supplies, etc. are not set up for a one off fusion machine, Helion is making a fusion machine manufacturing plant.

In other words, making a prototype fusion machine *manufacturing plant* is the real goal; Helion is steps ahead of any other fusion company, maybe by a decade? This is the behavior of a company that knows their machines will succeed commercially & are readying to go into production.

I agree that Helion is very clearly building up its manufacturing capability. But CFS is also doing the same at least concerning their HTS-magnets. Zap Energy announced last year that they bought capacitor manufacturing equipment, so they are also on a similar path. Until we have clear evidence of the fusion performance of the corresponding devices I would still hesitate to announce who is leading the race and by how much, because we still not know whether there will be unknown obstacles on the way to fusion power plants.

[Skipjack]

Polaris assembly begins!
Polaris formation section delivered to Ursa.

HelionFormationSectionDelivery.jpg (76.25 KiB) Viewed 1001 times

https://x.com/Helion_Energy/status/1793787652111806488

[usesbiggerwords]

This seems to confirm the discussion that Helion is not prototyping a fusion generator (though they are, obviously) so much as prototyping a fusion generator manufacturing system. It makes me wonder what they're not saying about the performance of Trenta.

[Skipjack]

This seems to confirm the discussion that Helion is not prototyping a fusion generator (though they are, obviously) so much as prototyping a fusion generator manufacturing system. It makes me wonder what they're not saying about the performance of Trenta.

People also haven't noticed what they ARE saying, though sort of veiled...

But yes, there are also quite a few things Helion has not published about Trenta. After all, there were several campaigns with significant upgrades between them and they have only ever published the results from the first one.

And then there are things that they say, that most people don't even understand as significant. E.g. in one of their news letters, they mentioned in a short paragraph that they had increased the trapped flux by 25%. That 25% increase in flux alone equals an 80% increase in fusion output! And it did not even require any major upgrades to the machine! If anyone else managed to increase their fusion output by 80% just like that, they would be writing several papers about it and probably do a press release.

[mvanwink5]

Helion already has 2 commercial power project contracts, I suppose that points to sufficient data supporting a commercial machine along with design parameters, such as the need for larger diameter machine used in Polaris, all derived from Trenta performance testing.

[Skipjack]

New Helion patent applications published:

1. Monolithic magnetic field coils.
https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-publi ... 0240161963

2. High speed switching for magnetic coils
https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-publi ... 0240113511

3. Hybrid gettering diffusion pump
https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-publi ... 0240136165

4. Apparatus for generating a pulsating magnetic field
https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-publi ... 0240107652

[crowberry]

Skipjack, the link to patent 3 is the same as the link to patent 2.

[Skipjack]

Corrected! Thanks for pointing that out and sorry for that!

[Skipjack]

HelionQuartzTubeManufacturing.jpg (75.53 KiB) Viewed 307 times

https://x.com/Helion_Energy/status/1798431057290924126

[natebrau]

Helion lands another customer, OpenAI:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/ ... ower_deal/

[Maui]

While this deal makes sense, it certainly doesn't strengthen my perception of Helion's outlook.

[Skipjack]

This is a rehash of a rehash of part of an article about Sam Altman in WSJ.

I don't have any direct information about any deals between Helion and OpenAI. So for now, I will go with this:

"On Monday, a spokesperson for the Everett, Wash.-based company said there were no new customer announcements to share."

I am careful with these things because this is how rumors are made and Helion ended up with articles making false claims about what they actually said and announced in the past (e.g "Helion said they would have power plants in 2017", when they never said that and what they had planned was even under the condition of funding that they did not have.).