5 ways that fusion energy can improve the world

People have been talking about commercial fusion energy ever since scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California did something that many people thought was impossible: they did a fusion experiment that made a net energy gain.

The success at this federal lab proves what fusion pioneers have long thought: that the same process that powers the sun can be done on Earth. That's a big step forward for fusion scientists' decades-long global goal of giving people a cheap, limitless, carbon-free source of electricity.

This experimental step forward helps us get closer to our goal at TAE Technologies. We are working to help fusion energy make the jump from experimental labs to power plants that can connect to the grid in the 2030s.

Commercial fusion energy is exciting in and of itself, but think about how a change in the way we get our energy can affect business and the environment. High energy costs have slowed down a number of clean and important inventions. It will take years, but when fusion is at its best, anyone will be able to use as much electricity as they need without hurting the environment or spending much money. Fusion energy is one of the most interesting things people have found since fire. Here are just a few ways that fusion power could change the world, from how we heat our homes to having more water during droughts.

There's nothing to drink: water

Access to fresh water is getting harder to find all over the world. This has brought more attention to desalination (desal) technology, which can make a lot of drinkable water from the sea. But desalination still has the same problem it has always had: it takes a lot of energy. In 2019, a report from the US Department of Energy said, "The ability to avoid these energy costs could be very important for growth."

Commercial fusion energy could make this possible by reducing the energy costs of desalination to almost nothing, which would change the game.

Energy costs for desalination are so high that most plants are not in use. For example, a desalination plant that was built in Santa Barbara, California, during a drought in the early 1990s only ran for a few months before it was shut down for more than 20 years. One problem was that the process, which usually involves distilling seawater several times until all of the salt is gone, uses a lot of energy.

Even when there is a drought and there isn't much fresh water, it isn't cost-effective to run most desal plants because of how much energy they use. Take the $140 million desalination plant in Dana Point, California, which was approved in 2022. It could eventually meet half of the area's water needs and sell any extra water to nearby cities. However, desalinated water is 20% more expensive per acre-foot than imported water, which could mean that residents' water bills go up by as much as $15 a month.

And there are more things to think about when access to water gets better. If there was a lot of energy, desalination plants would not only be able to keep California's desert cities hydrated, but they would also be able to water huge carbon sequestration projects all over the world. We could plant huge forests where there are only bushes right now. We could use desalinated water to power these "living factories" that take in carbon and store it. To power it, all you'd need is a nearby energy fusion plant.

Manufacturing in your neighbourhood

For hundreds of years, any kind of mill or other factory in the US had to be built next to a river, with a water wheel turning because of the water flow. As technology improved in the early 1800s, mills of all kinds could be powered by turbine systems. In modern times, factories still need to be close to high-wattage transmission lines that can send a lot of electricity. But with fusion power, industrial planning would be turned on its head. Almost anyone, almost anywhere, could get as much energy as they need.

For example, factories could be put closer to the raw materials they use or the retail markets where their products are sold. This would cut down on transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Relocating factories from Asia and other countries to the US already reduces emissions from both shipping and production (for example, Chinese factories often rely on coal-fired power plants). These costs would decrease even more if the factory and the logistics infrastructure used fusion energy.

Food and farming: a new cornucopia

There are two major barriers to innovation in agriculture: access to water and the cost of electricity. Depending on where you live, desalination may be able to help with access to water. Hydroponic vertical farms would be a new way to grow food that would be better for the environment if they didn't need so much electricity to power the grow lights and other equipment.

Fusion can also help solve this problem. It could make it possible for agriculture to use a lot less land and for fruits and vegetables to be grown in indoor farms much closer to urban centres, if not right in the cities themselves.

Nearly half of the US's fruits and nuts are grown in California, which has a mild climate and a lot of farmland. Many crops are picked early in the West so they can ripen on the way to kitchen tables in the East. Hydroponically grown strawberries, lettuce, and other crops can be grown to maturity without pesticides and other harsh chemicals by using fusion-powered grow lights.

Runoff and the loss of top soil, which are both bad things that happen when crops are grown in fields, would no longer happen. Organic, sustainable food powered by fusion energy that is picked when it's ripe and sold at a reasonable price could have the second effect of getting more people excited about eating fresher, tastier foods that are better for their health.

Between farms and your fridge, there is also a hidden, energy-dependent infrastructure called the coldscape. It is made up of refrigerated warehouses, trucks, and other forms of transportation. We can get fresh bananas, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables all year thanks to this little-known piece of infrastructure.When you buy them at the shop, they are always right on the edge of being ready.

But making all that cold air takes a lot of electricity, so the cold storage industry is a big source of carbon emissions from the food industry. With fusion energy, these emissions could go away, and the huge drop in cooling costs would make it cheaper to buy tropical fruits and other foods that aren't in season.

How we travel: how we travel

With the new $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, which was included in the US Inflation Reduction Act's wide-ranging climate measures, the already booming market for electric cars will grow even more. The electric vehicle revolution is finally here, and fusion will only make it better by reducing emissions and charging costs for all of the new gas-free cars. The Biden Administration plans to build 500,000 "fast"-level charging stations across the country by 2030. These stations can fully charge an electric car's battery in about 30 minutes.

There is an energy ecosystem in electric cars that needs to be fixed so that electric cars are a better choice for everyone. To help with this, TAE recently started a new company called TAE Power Solutions. Its goal is to make advanced technologies that will help e-mobility and stationary applications charge faster, perform better, go farther, and last longer.
Warmth in the winter: heating the house

Because of the energy crisis in Europe (and some parts of the US), this winter is especially cold for many people who can't afford to heat their homes because gas and oil are so expensive. But fusion power can make heat pumps and electric heating a zero-emissions way to heat your home.

These are just a few of the ways that cheap commercial fusion energy could change life on Earth, which is why it's important to try to make it happen.