In response to many questions from investors and supporters, LPPFusion published on Jan.12 a press release summarizing the state of the fusion race. While most media use money invested as a measure of who the leading fusion companies are, the release emphasizes that money is a really poor measure of who is close to the goal of commercial fusion energy, or even of who is getting close. Lots of money can be wasted on technological directions that just don’t work.
Instead, the release explained that there are two good measures of actual fusion achievement and of how close a project is to success. The best one is “wall-plug efficiency”. That is simply the ratio of the energy out of the device to the energy put into it. To produce electricity, a fusion device has to have a wall plug efficiency of more than 1, or 100%. This condition is the same as “net energy”. For a fair comparison, wall plug efficiency for various devices should be compared using the same fusion fuel. The other one is n𝜏T, the product of the density (n) of the plasma, the confinement time (𝜏) and the temperature (T). Each of these factors are required to get to net energy.
For wall-plug efficiency with deuterium fuel, the leader is—guess who—LPPFusion! For hydrogen-boron, it is HB11. By the n𝜏T measure, again, it’s us, LPPFusion, a factor of 13 ahead of second-place MIFTI and a factor of more than 5,000 ahead of TAE.
The release points out that most media also get an important point on the financial side wrong. Many have reported that the merged TMTG-TAE is the only “pure fusion” play for small investors. That’s wrong in two ways. TMTG is far from a pure fusion play since the firm’s value also depends on the value of Bitcoin and the political value of the Trump connection. In addition, small investors can invest in LPPFusion through the Wefunder crowdfunding platform. That is a pure fusion play, as LPPFusion has no other business besides fusion energy.
Please read the full press release for more details on the status of the race.
LPPFusion is also planning to complete a video series on the Fusion Race in the course of this month. Keep your eyes on our YouTube channel for the latest!
