the clean
energy
heavy
lifter
A massive transition is underway as major populations in emerging economies access modern infrastructure. This is a time of great challenge and opportunity. Unprecedented demand for healthcare, education, water, food and transportation generates more demand for electricity and other forms of power. We need to transform how we produce it in order to protect the planet while advancing a more abundant and equitable future for all.
Fusion energy is the clean power at the center of stars. Mastered here on earth, its unique advantages will rapidly disrupt carbon-based fuels to become the primary form of baseload power on the planet.
Type One Energy was formed by a team of globally-recognized fusion scientists with a strong track record building state-of-art stellarator fusion machines, together with veteran business leaders experienced in successfully scaling companies and commercializing energy technologies. We are applying proven advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics and high-field superconducting magnets to develop our optimized stellarator fusion energy system.
FUSION
ENERGY
POWER TO
TRANSFORM THE ENERGY LANDSCAPE
EVERY
DROP
OF WATER
IS 0.03%
DEUTERIUM
BY MASS
ABUNDANT FUEL
Derived from deuterium (D) and lithium, the fuel for fusion energy is virtually inexhaustible. Deuterium is a natural component of seawater. Lithium can be extracted from the vast number of used lithium batteries.
Inside the stellarator, lithium is consumed to breed tritium, and the deuterium and tritium fuse to create helium and a neutron. Just a single gram of fusion fuel releases as much energy as burning 10,000 kg of coal. Due to this enormous energy density, only a few hundred kilograms of deuterium and lithium are needed to power a big city for a full year.
SAFE OPERATIONS
The fuel used in a fusion power system produces inert helium and a neutron, which is used to drive the conversion of lithium to tritium. The fusion process instantly ceases in the event of an operational failure. That means that in a stellarator, there is no risk of a runaway process or a meltdown. Fusion will extinguish itself within a few seconds if the power plant is damaged or perturbed in some way.
IMPROVED IMPACTS
The deuterium fuel used in a fusion power system produces inert helium. Fusion systems would eliminate dangerous emissions contributing to climate change and improve the environmental impact of electricity generation. Fusion has almost no carbon footprint from mining, refining, or major transport, as is common with fossil fuels. The extraction of deuterium has no effect on the water and is restored to the source.
LOCAL DEPLOYMENT
Fusion power systems can be sized to support localized grids with siting in proximity to where the energy is used. This avoids the costs and very lengthy easement & licensing process for long distance transmission. Fusion power plants are also ideal for retrofitting decommissioned coal and natural gas plants.
SECURE & STEADY
An unvarying and continuous supply of electricity is generated 24/7 by a stellarator power plant. Since the fuel is ubiquitous, near limitless, and very low cost, resource constraints arising from geopolitics, supply issues, and commodity prices, become a thing of the past.
STELLARATOR
CLEAN BASELOAD POWER
FOR MODERN NATION BUILDING
The stellarator is a innovative marriage of elegant physics, engineering artistry, and practical utility.
Invented in the United States by Dr. Lyman Spitzer in 1951, the stellarator uses shaped magnetics to confine extremely hot charged gas along a twisting circular path. The complex magnetic fields are designed to optimally and quiescently confine the hot plasma.
ELECTROMAGNETS
CONFINED FUSING PLASMA FUEL
RELIABLE
The stellarator is inherently stable and simple to operate since its performance is controlled only by the fields generated by the external magnets. This removes the need to run a current in the plasma as required by other fusion concepts, which makes them prone to major disruption events that can cause operational failure, damage the device, and degrade fusion performance. Plasma currents also necessitate major equipment, operational, and power requirements to monitor and mitigate these disruptions.
EFFICIENT
For fusion systems driving a plasma current, a DC transformer is used, which must cycle from start, ramp to a peak, and cease. As a result, the power plant must operate in pulsed mode, resulting in lower power output efficiency, and increased maintenance and downtime from thermal and mechanical cycling stress. In contrast, a stellarator maintains a persistent fusion plasma that produces energy without cessation.
POWERFUL
Given that no power is required to drive a current or manage disruption events, a stellarator requires the minimum amount of recirculated energy to maintain the fusion process. This provides the stellarator with a high fusion energy gain factor (Q), an important feature for an efficient electricity generating power plant. The higher the Q, the more economically competitive a fusion power plant will be. Stellarators have the potential to reach infinite Q whereby the energy produced from the fusion plasma becomes self-sustaining requiring no external power to maintain it. This is referred to as "ignition."
The external
twisted magnetic fields keep the fuel particles from
drifting away from where they fuse.
SIMPLE & STABLE
DRIVEN ONLY BY
EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELDS
(NO DISRUPTIONS)
STEADY STATE
CONTINUOUS OPERATION
(NO PULSING)
HIGH ENERGY GAIN
NO OPERATIONAL
PLASMA HEATING INPUT
Photo by Al Fenn/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
CC BY-SA 3.0 Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik
Photo by Al Fenn/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
standout performance
A SHORTER PATH TO NET POWER
There are three key factors that determine the performance of a given fusion concept: the temperature and density of the ions undergoing fusion and the energy confinement time (how long the energy is retained in the fusion plasma until it is lost to the surroundings). This combined metric of "hot enough, close enough, and for long enough" is the figure of merit - referred to as the triple product.
TRIPLE PRODUCT
HOT enough
X
close enough
X
LONG enough
Stellarators are one of the top performing fusion concepts in the race to reach net power, a milestone comparable to the first powered flight by the Wright brothers. Some alternative concepts being pursed by fusion startups are making progress but remain many orders of magnitude lower in triple product performance.
A fusion concept must have all three factors of the triple product at sufficient levels. Improving one at the expense of the the others will not work. Stellarators have demonstrated high levels of performance in each of the triple product categories and progress is underway to achieve these peak conditions in unison.
After many decades of research, the performance of stellarators has been shown to scale very predictably given its simplicity of operation and proven plasma stability at these high ion and electron energy levels. This reduces the risk of unforeseen physics complications that can occur with other fusion concepts when progressing into the net gain energy regimes needed for commercial operation.
=
LOWER
R&D RISK
PREDICTABLE
SCALING
OPTIMIZATION
A BREAKTHROUGH IN CONFINEMENT
A new era of stellarators with high performance plasma confinement occurred with the groundbreaking discovery in the 1980s by Jürgen Nührenberg and Allen Boozer. It was determined that by precisely contouring the magnetic fields, the various forces causing the particles to drift cancel each other out. This "quasi symmetry" of forces was the dawn of the modern "optimized" stellarator with its characteristic organic shape and use of 3D non-planar electromagnets.
Because confinement of the plasma in a stellarator is driven solely by the external magnets, modifying the shape and strength of their fields has a major impact on performance. To tailor a three-dimensional magnetic field with the right shape to achieve quasi-symmetry requires extensive calculations. Advances in computer modeling code and high performance computing has provided this ability. These powerful new tools have resulted in a next generation optimized stellarator for superior confinement and fusion performance.
In 2007, proof for the benefits of magnetic field shaping were first demonstrated with HSX - the world's first optimized stellarator designed and built by Type One co-founders Prof. David Anderson and the German theorists who conceived of and designed the original quasi-helically symmetric stellarator. HSX measured 2.4 meters in diameter and cost USD $7.5 million to build. Due to its optimized configuration, HSX proved superior confinement via strong reductions in neoclassical transport, a previously untamed loss mechanism that causes particles and heat to leak from the plasma. HSX continues to operate and has undergone a recent $7 million power upgrade to extend its research capabilities.
HSX
3D shaping to minimize neoclassical transport was further demonstrated with W7-X in Germany, a $1.2 billion statement of conviction for optimized stellarators by the German government. The largest experimental stellarator to date (5.5 m major radius), W7-X went online in 2015 and in 2018, it achieved a world record for stellarator fusion performance with the greatest triple product to date. With cooling system upgrades completed in 2022, W7-X is targeted in achieve another triple product world record and demonstrate steady state operation with a run time of 30 minutes. This will be an unprecedented duration for any fusion system.
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Anja Richter Ullmann.
-X
W
7
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
OPTIMIZING FOR TURBULENCE
While mitigating neoclassical transport was a major leap forward, the largest loss channel limiting fusion performance in a stellarator is turbulence, which determines the energy confinement time. With turbulence, small eddies cause hot particles from the plasma to escape, reducing the thermal insulation that maintains the rate of fusion at its core.
Given the complexity of the physical process, the analytical tools to address turbulence did not exist at the time that HSX and W7-X were designed. Newly developed and highly sophisticated three-dimensional, gyrokinetic turbulence codes for simulating stellarator physics, combined with high performance computing, have sufficiently advanced to meet this challenge. The resulting stellarator designs generate a new class of high performance plasmas, which will realized in the next Type One stellarator: STARBLAZER.
Turbulence is the largest
source of energy loss
for a compact stellarator.
Recent breakthroughs
in stellarator design
code enables plasma
turbulence to be
strongly suppressed.
In combination with HTS magnets, a compact stellarator can now be realized.
ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
THE GAME CHANGERS
In addition to providing reliable and abundant power when and where it is needed, a stellarator power plant must be cost-competitive to build and operate. This is now possible due to three transformational capabilities being applied by Type One in collaboration with our academic, national lab, and corporate partners:
1
OPTIMIZATION
Advancements in analytical theory, supercomputing and sophisticated codes uncover previously hidden magnetic field configurations that provide optimal confinement of the plasma for the greatest and most efficient power generation.
2
HTS MAGNETS
New high-temperature superconducting
(HTS) magnets can carry over 200 times the current carrying capacity of copper wires for a more compact stellarator. It also requires less cooling power than conventional low temperature magnets.
3
ADVANCED MFG
Digital design optimization with hybrid in-situ additive-subtractive manufacturing can enable the rapid, large scale build of complex-shaped, dimensionally-accurate stellarator components with fewer parts that perform better and at lower cost.
.png)
starblazer
FUSION MADE FOR MASS ADOPTION
Type One Energy is now executing its new FusionDirect technology program, which is a partner-rich, capital-efficient path to commercialization consistent with the White House’s “Bold Decadal Vision for Fusion Energy."
The FusionDirect program of Type One Energy pursues a low-risk, accelerated schedule approach to a viable Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP). It benefits from the Type One leadership team’s exceptional global network of fusion community partners and collaborators. These relationships allow Type One to avoid the need for a large-scale fusion science validation device. As a result, Type One Energy will proceed directly to design and construct a fusion pilot plant that is intended to achieve stellarator fuel ignition conditions (Q = infinity) and put fusion electrons on the grid.
STARBLAZER is a next generation high-field and turbulence-optimized stellarator currently under design by Type One Energy for its commercial fusion pilot plant. Co-founders of the Type One team proved the benefits of optimized stellarators with their build of the HSX stellarator, and worked to provide further proof in W7-X. These demonstrate excellent agreement between theory and real-world design.
Magnetic field
configuration optimized
to control losses from both neoclassical
and turbulent
transport.
In parallel, the company will build a relatively low-cost, but high-performance stellarator Risk Reduction Platform (RRP) over the next several years. The RRP testbed will be used to validate several FPP engineering design choices and confirm the fidelity of its stellarator plasma physics models and simulations. The RRP testbed supports the ongoing primary mission to design and develop the FPP, which has already begun.
RISK REDUCTION PLATFORM
Establishing the foundation for the RRP magnet development, Type One is completing the world's first, demo-scale HTS stellarator magnet with metal 3D-printed assemblies from a grant awarded by the US Department of Energy ARPA-E BETHE fusion program. Work is being performed in collaboration with the MIT Plasma Fusion Science Center and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Under a separate DOE INFUSE grant, Type One is also utilizing established materials developed for fusion applications and qualifying them for use with additive manufacturing in collaboration wIth Oak Ridge Ridge National Laboratory.
A high
temperature superconducting stellarator magnet
with additive
manufactured
assemblies.
_e.png)
funded by
market
FUSION POWER MADE FOR MASS ADOPTION
Stellarator physics are inherently suited to serve as an economical power plant to support the widespread deployment of fusion.
VERY LOW RECIRCULATING POWER
MORE ELECTRICITY TO SELL
STEADY STATE OPERATION
SYSTEM RELIABILITY
NO CURRENT DISRUPTIONS
INVESTMENT SECURITY
INHERENTLY STABLE PLASMA
OPERATIONAL ROBUSTNESS
HIGHLY OPTIMIZABLE
FUTURE UPGRADES
HIGH DENSITY PLASMA
ADVANCED FUELS POTENTIAL
deployment
FOR RAPID MARKET CAPTURE
MARKET SIZE
Approximately 300 quadrillion BTUs ("quads") of new energy are required by 2050 (US IEA) to meet demand, raising total global energy consumption to 911 quads. This translates to roughly $50 trillion in cumulative investments in generation over the same period. Carbon-based energy is projected to lose 11% of market share during this period but will still comprise a majority share of the energy mix at 69%. This amounts to 125 quads in new carbon-based energy generating 3.6 billion tonnes of additional CO2 per year in 2050.
Energy Mix
2020
32%
26%
22%
15%
2050
22%
20%
27%
4%
27%
5%
SEGMENTATION
Type One will initially focus on intercepting new natural gas, coal, and diesel generating capacity in the 500 MWe and greater range and replacement of decommissioned plants for heat and electricity in the emerging markets of OECD Asia. This market represents:
● the largest and fastest-growing region in the world for energy consumption (a projected
70% increase from 2018 to 2050)
● new baseload power plants averaging 820 MWe (natural gas) to 1100 MWe (nuclear)
● high fractions of fossil fuels in their energy mix (e.g. China and India draw more than 70%
of their electricity from coal - US EIA).
Type One will spearhead fusion industry-led initiatives for regions to adopt regulations and licensing appropriate for fusion (already underway in the US), provide government loan guarantees on construction, and offer fusion subsidies to utilities.
DISPLACE
CARBON-BASED
NEW
GENERATION
IN OECD
ASIA
FOR >500MWe
BASELOAD
WITH HIGH % OF
INDUSTRIAL LOAD
FUSION
SUBSIDIES
CLEAN POWER
INVESTMENTS
GOV LOAN
GUARANTEES
ENERGY
DEPENDENCY
GEOPOLITICAL
PRESSURES
REGIONAL
FACTORS
CARBON
TAX
REGULATORY
FRAMEWORK
MANDATED COAL RETIREMENT
EARLY ADOPTER
CULTURE
POLLUTION
LEVELS
Making up more than half of global energy consumption, the biggest challenge is the decarbonization of industry, which include energy intensive applications such as making steel and cement, desalinization, and upcoming atmospheric decarbonization deployments.
PROCESS & DISTRICT
HEATING
High heat for cement, steel, glass, chemicals, and other uses is 32% of global energy use.
DESALINATION
By 2050, over half of the global population will live in water stressed areas.
ATMOSPHERIC
DECARBONIZATION
Direct air capture requires a whopping
8.8 gigajoules of energy per ton of CO2.
MEDICAL ISOTOPE
PRODUCTION
Long half-life isotopes are produced by only 8 nuclear reactors and flown worldwide.
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
95% of hydrogen fuel is made with methane, a fossil fuel input that emits carbon dioxide.
LEADERSHIP
Christofer Mowry
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Chris joined Type One Energy as CEO with over 30 years of global business leadership experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, including clean energy technologies, power generation, oil & gas, automation and process industries. Previously, he served as CEO of General Fusion, a Canadian-based company deploying a large-scale fusion demonstration facility in the UK. He was also the Founder and CEO of Generation mPower, a company formed to develop and commercialize nuclear fission technology.
Chris has led numerous exceptional businesses including B&W Nuclear Energy, a division of The Babcock & Wilcox Company and WSI, a private equity-backed services and manufacturing company serving the global energy and petrochemical industries. After starting his career with the Philadelphia Electric Company and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, Chris spent 10 years with GE Energy in various management roles, including President of GE Reuter-Stokes and General Manager of GE Hydro. Chris currently serves as Chairman of the global Fusion Industry Association (FIA). He earned degrees in Engineering and Astronomy from Swarthmore College and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University.
Prof. Thomas Sunn Pedersen
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Thomas Sunn Pedersen joined Type One Energy after eleven successful years as Director of Stellarator Edge and Divertor Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. While living in Germany, he worked on the world-leading Wendelstein 7-X stellarator and continued teaching and mentoring as a Professor of Physics at the University of Greifswald, Germany. Thomas oversaw the development of twenty diagnostic systems for Wendelstein 7-X and conducted research on limiter and divertor plasmas, with highlights including the demonstration of stable, fully detached island divertor operation, and the experimental demonstration of reduced neoclassical losses through stellarator optimization.
Before joining the W7-X leadership, Thomas was a tenured faculty at Columbia University, where he oversaw the conception, construction and operation of the CNT stellarator, which started operation in 2004.
Thomas received his PhD in Plasma Physics from MIT in 2000, working on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. He is a recipient of a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, a DOE Junior Faculty Award, and an NSF CAREER grant. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Thomas, born in Denmark, received his M.Sc. of Applied Physics Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1995.
Dr John Canik
CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER
John Canik is a co-founder of Type One Energy. He previously headed the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Plasma Theory and Modeling Group and served as the group leader for the Experimental Plasma Physics Group before acting as the interim director of the ORNL Fusion Energy Division from 2019 to 2020. In 2021, John received the Fusion Power Associates Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award.
John brings a long history of successful fusion plasma physics advancements. He led numerous stellarator studies at the HSX Plasma Laboratory, including landmark experiments validating the ability of optimized stellarators to reach new levels of confinement performance. John received his Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and began his work in the national laboratory system under a prestigious Wigner Fellowship.
Suzanne Hansen
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Suzanne is currently the interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Type One Energy. She has worked in executive financial roles at four of the 17 DOE Laboratories including twenty-five years of experience at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Suzanne is a third-generation Washington State University (WSU) alumni graduating from Pullman in Business/Accounting and earning her Master’s degree from WSU Tri-Cities. She currently chairs the Frank Fellows Program at WSU, supporting entrepreneurial education within the schools of engineering, communication and business. Suzanne is passionate about leadership and development and serves as an executive coach for clients at various organizations.
Prof. David Anderson
VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF ENGINEER
Dave is recognized as a world leader in stellarator R&D and helped to co-found Type One Energy. Within the UW-Madison College of Engineering, he established the HSX Plasma Laboratory and successfully designed, built and operated the world's first optimized stellarator. His efforts have included the in-house manufacture of complicated magnet coils to precision tolerances.
David led the engineering and experimental campaign that proved the impact of optimized stellarators to dramatically improve confinement. His career in plasma physics and controlled fusion includes various publications, awards and lectures for numerous graduate-level courses in plasma physics and electrodynamics. David received his PhD in engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1984.
Prof. Chris Hegna
VICE PRESIDENT & PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST
Chris helped to co-found Type One Energy while he was the director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Plasma Theory and Computation. He is involved in the research activities of three magnetic confinement experiments, the HSX Plasma Laboratory, Pegasus Toroidal Experiment (PTE), and the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST). His primary field is theoretical plasma physics with an emphasis on plasma confinement using magnetic fields.
Chris is heavily involved in the U.S. fusion science program by serving on a number of workshop and conference organization committees, review panels and program advisory committees. In 2014, he received the Excellence in Plasma Physics Research Award from the American Physical Society.
Paul Harris
VICE PRESIDENT, HTS MAGNET PROGRAM
Paul is a co-founder of Type One Energy with 30 years of electrical engineering and company management across a range of high technology sectors, including satellite control systems, nuclear detection instruments, semiconductors, electric bikes, pulsed power, and fusion energy. Paul has successfully bootstrapped design, manufacturing and distribution companies as a founder. He is an energetic team builder and solutions-driven leader who is battle-hardened to take on the challenges a startup can face.
Randall Volberg
VP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGIST
Randall is a co-founder of Type One Energy. A fusion energy enthusiast from the age of eight, Randall has been contributing to the growth of the fusion R&D community full-time since 2014. Randall spent two years directing Type One Energy’s advanced manufacturing & materials initiatives funded by the US DOE and continues to provide support as a Scientific Technologist.
His experience as a serial tech startup entrepreneur, business development director, and R&D project manager across numerous technology sectors helps Type One Energy move from concept to commercialization. He has served in various leadership capacities to expand the fusion ecosystem of research, private finance, industry collaboration, government support, and NGO advocacy. Randall is on the Advisory Board of the Fusion Industry Association, the representative body of the international fusion startup community, an Adjunct Fellow of the American Security Project, and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
CONTACT
MAILING ADDRESS
8383 Greenway Boulevard
Middleton, WI 53562
MEDIA INQUIRIES
GENERAL INQUIRIES
please fill in the following contact form:
