Here is a phrase we never though we’d utter: Bezos is the bomb! Okay, so maybe a nuke reference isn’t exactly appropriate here, considering Jeff Bezos is essentially backing a firm that’s seeking to create cheap energy through nuclear fusion , but we couldn’t resist. General Fusion, a nuclear fusion startup, released an announcement today saying that it has completed a $19.5 million round of funding that included backing by the Amazon founder’s Bezos Expeditions. According the company’s website, General Fusion’s solution to generating “safe and plentiful” energy employs an idea created about 30 years ago called “magnetic target fusion,” and expects commercialization of its process could come before the top of the last decade. Full PR after the break.
General Fusion Closes $19.5M Series B Funding Round
Funding Will Support the continuing Development of Utility-Scale Fusion Power Using Magnetized Targeted Fusion TechnologyBURNABY, British Columbia-(Marketwire – May 05, 2011)-General Fusion has completed its US$19.5M Series B funding round providing the financing essential to complete the primary phase of its development and demonstration program.
The investors include Cenovus Energy, through its Environmental Opportunity Fund, Bezos Expeditions, the private investment company of Jeff Bezos, in conjunction with existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, GrowthWorks, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), and SET Venture Partners.
“Cenovus is impressed by General Fusion’s innovative, pragmatic approach,” said Judy Fairburn, Executive Vice-President, Environment and Strategic Planning for Cenovus Energy. “General Fusion is a brilliant fit for our Environmental Opportunity Fund, which finances environmental innovations in energy and technology. This technology has the capability to revolutionize energy production.”
“We’re more than happy to have Cenovus Energy, a big, forward-thinking energy company, joining us as a strategic investor,” added Doug Richardson, General Fusion’s CEO. “We’ve plenty of work before us, however the support of Cenovus Energy and Jeff Bezos, and the continuing participation of each one among our venture capital investors, reflects the strength of our team, our plan, and the progress now we have made. Partners like these are critical for General Fusion as we push to illustrate and commercialize this technology in the decade.”
Fusion is the method that powers the sun. In the world, hydrogen isotopes are heated to extremely high temperatures permitting them to collide and fuse to form helium, releasing vast amounts of energy which are harnessed to provide electricity. The fuel is located in abundance in seawater and the by-products of the reaction are safe for our surroundings. The fusion process emits no greenhouse gases.
Magnetized Target Fusion is a fusion idea that first showed promise inside the 1970s, but has gone mostly unexplored lately. General Fusion believes that an influence plant in accordance with its technology might possibly be built at a miles lower price than using conventional magnetic and laser fusion approaches. The sort of power plant would make fusion a commercially viable clean power source. This funding round comes at the heels of General Fusion achieving the primary milestone in its Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) project, undertaken in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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