When I was a kid, fusion belonged in science fiction. It was the power of the Sun, the dream energy source that always seemed to be 50 years away. Every few years another headline would appear claiming a breakthrough, only for sceptics to shrug and say the same thing: “Come back in another half century.”
Not anymore.
The conversation has changed dramatically. Governments are still backing research but now private investors are pouring billions into companies that believe fusion can finally move from the laboratory into the real world.
One of them is Type One Energy, where Chief Technology Officer Dr Thomas Sunn Pedersen believes the biggest hurdle is no longer proving fusion works, but proving it can be built commercially.
Before that though, what exactly is fusion?
“Fusion and fission are both fundamentally taking advantage of the nuclear force, but they are very different,” Thomas explained. “In fusion you put nuclei together, whereas in fission you take nuclei and split them. Fusion takes light elements and makes them into heavier elements, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process. That’s what powers the Sun.”
The challenge has never been understanding the science. It has been recreating those conditions on Earth.
“The two nuclei don’t want to fuse,” he said. “They repel each other. You need them to have enough energy that they actually end up touching, and then they can melt together. That releases a lot of energy, but keeping that reaction going has always been incredibly difficult.”
For decades, scientists could create fusion reactions, but they lost heat faster than they could produce it. “That was the biggest stumbling block,” Thomas admitted.
“The plasma loses heat much faster than we thought. We had to understand why it was losing heat and build devices that were much better at keeping the heat in.”
Everything changed when laboratories finally demonstrated what physicists call ignition. “They actually got more fusion energy released than they had put into the implosion,” he said. “That was the first laboratory fusion ignition where the self-heated process was beginning to take off.”
That breakthrough has transformed the sector.
“We are very much in the process of companies saying, ‘I’m going to build one.’ We’re one of those companies,” Thomas told me. “In the last roughly five years there’s been an explosion of interest and funding going into private companies. There is a real belief now, not just among scientists but among investors, to the degree that they put their money where their mouth is.”
That’s the key difference. Fusion is no longer just an academic exercise. It’s becoming a commercial race. Thomas remains convinced the physics is no longer the question.
“Yes, we can absolutely do it. It is a very solvable problem from the point of view of engineering and physics.
“Can we make it economically viable? I absolutely believe we can too. That’s the bigger prize. That’s what we need to do for humanity.”
Type One Energy is betting on stellarator technology, using sophisticated magnets, advanced engineering and AI-powered computing to design machines capable of producing commercial electricity. If successful, the prize is extraordinary. Fusion promises vast amounts of clean energy from abundant fuel, with one oft-used comparison suggesting the hydrogen contained in a cup of water could ultimately produce as much energy as hundreds of kilograms of coal.
Thomas has believed in fusion since university and convinced me that we could have commercial plants within two decades.
“I was a believer.
“I thought they’re going to be building a fusion energy-producing power plant in my lifetime. I got into it with excitement because it felt like such an amazing goal and such a game changer for humanity.”
For the first time, that optimism feels less like wishful thinking and more like a commercial reality edging closer.
Listen to the full conversation on the Net Hero Podcast, available now on all major podcast platforms, or download the latest episode wherever you get your podcasts.
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