If this company perfectly combines lasers and atoms, the reaction could be worth trillions of dollars.
Focused Energy’s Thomas Forner, CEO, and Pravesh Patel, CTO, join us to talk about making lasers. Lots and lots of lasers. But for what aim? They are pointing hundreds of directed beams at a tiny target: a millimeter-sized plastic capsule of deuterium and tritium, about the size of a peppercorn. These experiments may reveal a commercial pathway to grid-scale fusion energy. In contrast to other pursuits for nearly limitless clean energy such as stellarators and tokamaks, our third installment of the Tough Tech Today fusion series spotlights Focused Energy’s inertial approach to excite hydrogen isotopes.
Uniquely straddling the Atlantic to tap into specialized talent pools in Austin, Texas, and Darmstadt, Germany, this team is leveraging discoveries from top fusion labs in the U.S. and Europe. The company has spun out of the Technical University of Darmstadt and combined with talent from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the first net energy gain from nuclear fusion was demonstrated in 2022.
In a planet hungry for energy, the company aims to generate significant revenues within a few years, fast-tracking commercialization of fusion energy while tapping into early revenues streams Focused Energy is deriving from testing other organizations’ technologies, cleaning up nuclear waste, and providing other valuable services as the company matures its laser drivers, high-gain ignition facility, and, eventually, establishes a pilot power plant. It is a lot of progress for a venture that has raised $82 million to date, including closing an $11 million Series A in 2023. From maintaining a permanent presence among regulators in Washington, D.C., to working with other energy companies to ‘educate the market’ about why fusion energy is now a venture-class investment opportunity, Forner, Patel, and the Focused Energy team exemplify a multinational collaboration of some of the world’s top minds.
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🧠Relevant Links:
Episode homepage: https://www.toughtechtoday.com/fusing-atoms-with-lasers/
Thomas Forner on LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/forner-thomas
Pravesh Patel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pravesh-patel
Focused Energy homepage: https://focused-energy.world
👏Credit Roll:
Producers: Jonathan ‘JMill’ Miller and Forrest Meyen
Guests: Thomas Forner and Pravesh Patel
Hosts: JMill and Forrest Meyen
Editing: JMill
Transcript: JMill
Blog Author: JMill
Art Design: JMill