Google Strikes Deal to Buy Power from Nuclear Fusion Project

Google announced on Monday that it has signed a groundbreaking deal to purchase electricity from a fusion-powered project based in Virginia. Fusion, the same process that fuels the sun and stars, has long been a scientific dream but has yet to become commercially viable here on Earth.

This marks the first time a corporation has directly agreed to buy power from a fusion energy project. The agreement is with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, or CFS—a company that emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in 2018. Google’s deal is for 200 megawatts of electricity from CFS's ARC project, which is expected to eventually produce up to 400 megawatts. The facility will be built in Virginia, a state that’s become a hotbed for energy-intensive data centres. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Fusion energy works by forcing light atoms together, releasing a tremendous amount of energy in the process. CFS relies on powerful magnets to achieve this reaction, while other labs use high-energy lasers. Scientists around the world have been working on fusion for decades, hoping to harness it as a limitless, clean energy source.

In 2022, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California made headlines by achieving a net energy gain in a laser-driven fusion experiment. That was a major milestone, but we’re still far from what experts call “engineering break-even”, where a fusion plant produces more energy than it consumes. And to make fusion practical, these reactions need to happen continuously, not just once in a while.

As demand for electricity surges, driven by artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the rapid expansion of data centres, interest in fusion energy is climbing fast. One of fusion’s biggest selling points is its minimal environmental impact. Unlike nuclear fission, which splits atoms and creates radioactive waste, fusion doesn't leave behind long-lived hazardous materials. If successful, it could play a major role in combating climate change.

CFS is aiming to start delivering electricity from the ARC project in the early 2030s. But before that happens, the company still has to clear some major scientific and engineering hurdles.