#109 - Dan Brunner - Commonwealth Fusion - Is fusion still 20 years away?

Subscribe to the newsletter: New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack \*\*\** **New Wave is supported by:** Evertrace: the leading founder detection engine for VCs. It traces signals across the digital landscape to uncover emerging founders earlier than anyone else, so you meet tomorrow’s founders today. I use it myself to source more deals at Climate Club, and I LOVE it. See what Evertrace can do for you here, or ask me for an intro and get a little something from the team ;) \*\*\** 🌊 **When Does Fusion Actually Become a Business?** *Fusion is getting closer to producing net energy. The harder question is whether it can ever produce cheap electricity.* We’re joined by Dan Brunner, co-founder and former CTO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, one of the companies at the forefront of the race to commercial fusion. CFS has raised billions of dollars, signed power agreements with customers including Google, and is building SPARC, its machine designed to demonstrate net fusion energy. But proving fusion works is only one step. As Dan puts it, there’s ultimately another Q that matters: the dollar Q. Can a fusion plant produce more money than it costs to build, operate, maintain, and continuously repair? In this episode, we go from the basic physics of fusion all the way to the economics of a commercial power plant. In our conversation, we covered: → What *Q* actually means — scientific Q, engineering Q and ultimately dollar Q → Why tokamaks may be the first fusion technology to put electricity on the grid → How high-temperature superconductors changed the economics of fusion → Why tritium supply and breeding could become a critical constraint → The overlooked problem of materials being bombarded by fusion neutrons → Why component lifetime and plant availability may determine whether fusion is economical → Whether fusion can ever compete with fission on cost → Why the first customers are likely to be Google, Microsoft and other power-hungry companies → Where early-stage investors can still play through fusion picks and shovels → Why SPARC achieving net energy could trigger a new wave of investment into the industry ✨ Leave a review: Apple Podcasts // Spotify This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com