Development of fusion energy has been frustratingly just over the horizon for decades. But a New Zealand physics engineering research company delivered on its promise this week by creating first plasma with an edgy reactor design. Now the challenge is to scale the technology.
OpenStar Technologies joins the ranks of stellar ventures mythically founded in the bedrooms of grimy student flats located upon the slopes of Mt Victoria in the Kiwi capital city Wellington. In reality, OpenStar Technologies founder Ratu Mataira began his exploration of fusion science with his postgraduate studies at Victoria University of Wellington including time spent at the Robinson Institute, a research lab dealing with superconductor magnet science. Mataira’s exposure to deep tech industry also included a spell as intern at a Texas based superconductor engineering firm in 2016. Many have equated his trajectory as being similar to RocketLab founder Sir Peter Beck, whose personal shareholding valuation recently cracked the billion dollar mark.
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Fusion releases energy in a similar process to that generated by our nearest star, delivering daily enough energy to power the world for a year. So why not simply focus on building out more solar energy capture? The constraint is that the surface area required is vast and of course solar is only available in the daytime. The adoption of industrial scale fusion power generation would completely revolutionise global economies by providing low cost baseline power supply 24 hours a day; vastly reducing dependence on greenhouse gas producing fossil fuels. But delivering controlled fusion at scale has been elusive. OpenStar’s approach revisits the use of a levitated magnetic dipole to suspend plasma within a reactor chamber, a system originally conceived at MIT, but later abandoned due to funding constraints. It is no coincidence that one of the researchers on that early experiment now holds a senior role at the company. Dr Mataira explains the technicalities in this video interview with business journalist Madison Reidy.
OpenStar banked an initial $10 million in seed funding in 2023, lead by deeptech backer Outset Ventures and supported by local luminaries such as Xero founder Rod Drury alongside Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures and NZGCP’s Aspire fund. Company engineers are under no illusions about the technical challenges that lie ahead however, anticipating requirements for considerable future capital investment. The long term goal is to become a leading fusion reactor manufacturer.
Image credit: NASA/SDO, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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