Microsoft has signed an agreement with the American company Helion Energy to purchase energy generated through nuclear fusion. According to the agreement, Helion is set to start delivering energy to Microsoft as early as 2028, which is quite a bold move considering that no one has yet succeeded in producing electricity through nuclear fusion.
Many experts believe that it may take decades before substantial amounts of electricity can be produced through fusion, but Microsoft and Helion seem to hold a different belief. If Helion fails to deliver energy to Microsoft by 2028, some form of penalty fees will be imposed, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Nuclear fusion as an energy source – the holy grail of energy Nuclear fusion is the process that powers our sun and other stars, but currently, it has only been used on a larger scale in hydrogen bombs here on Earth. The ability to use nuclear fusion as an energy source is often referred to as the holy grail of energy because it could provide us with unlimited energy without any carbon dioxide emissions.
Helion Energy has been working on developing nuclear fusion for ten years and is financially backed, among others, by Sam Altman, the founder and CEO of the AI company OpenAI. The image above shows a prototype of Helion Energy’s fusion reactor. Below, you can watch a video from Kurzgesagt discussing fusion energy in more detail.
