Rachel Lerman reports that Helion Energy has raised $10.6 million in a new funding round to develop technology that aims to create a fusion reactor to generate power. The company disclosed the funds in a filing with the SEC. Helion plans to raise more than $21 million total in the continuing round. Redmond-based Helion had previously received $5 million from the U.S. DOE and raised a $1.5 million round in August 2014 from Y Combinator and Mithril Capital Management. The company declined to comment on the latest funding round.
Helion is creating technology it calls The Fusion Engine, which would use helium from engine exhaust, according to the company website. The helium, along with deuterium fuel from seawater, would be heated to become plasma and then compressed with magnetic fields to reach fusion temperature, which is more than 100 million degrees.
As concerns about climate change increase, fusion energy has become an area of serious interest for technology entrepreneurs. Fusion energy is the perfect energy resource to power homes and buildings, said Thomas Jarboe, a University of Washington professor of aeronautics and astronautics and an adjunct professor physics. He conducts controlled-fusion research.
The idea is that fusion energy would eventually replace all forms of energy to produce electricity. Although nuclear fusion is a controversial topic, experts say it is safer and cleaner than current power sources.
A large, international government-backed effort to build a fusion reactor is playing out in France. Many believe the world is decades away from fusion power, but Helion Energy executives have said the company could build a useful reactor in the next three years. It is a topic that every time they walk in a room, eyes roll, said Tom Ranken, president and CEO of the CleanTech Alliance. But when the Helion guys start talking, they are very sharp and have a unique, credible approach. We will see how this effort turns out over the next few years.
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