Is Fusion the Answer to Net Zero?

ECG President Jane Hotchkiss attended CERAWeek in Houston on March 6-10 where she caught a standing-room only fusion panel at the AGORA, CERAWeek’s innovation hub. Pictured above, CFS, TAE and MIT were discussing the fast advancing fusion industry and expectations of commercial energy power devices ready to retire fossil plants within the next 10 years. One of the challenges the panelists discussed was the urgent need to grow the fusion technology workforce, especially if progress on scaling fusion technology continues at its current pace.

Webinar – Putting SVB into perspective: What are the paths forward, and possible domino effects?

The venture capital community, including commercial fusion energy start-ups had a scare on March 10th as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) unraveled, threatening to evaporate uninsured deposits. ECG’s economic consultant, Bianca Taylor, organized a webinar with guest speaker Barbara Matthews of BCM Strategies to discuss the incident and how to prepare for a harsher private investment environment going forward.

ARPA-E Summit

ECG President Jane Hotchkiss and ECG Managing Director Wally Johnston attended the ARPA-E Summit in Washington, DC on March 22nd-24th. One of the highlights of the conference was Neil deGrasse Tyson’s talk about how innovation advances more quickly than we think. He showed a picture of an early 19th century street with horses and buggies. Then just 10 years later, the same street was covered in cars. Only one horse was in view. His observation that this analogy is true of the energy transition today — and if he were a betting man, he’d bet on fusion!

March 29 – FIA annual conference

ECG President Jane Hotchkiss and ECG Managing Director Wally Johnston joined the FIA Annual Conference in Washington, DC on March 29th. One of the hotly discussed topics was the ADVANCE Act. It calls for an extension of the 2027 deadline for developing a framework for fusion, and removes the requirement that the NRC develop a technology-inclusive framework. ECG believes that the 2027 deadline needs to remain, and all efforts need to be made to meet it with urgency.

Fusion Focused – Did you catch this podcast featuring ECG President Jane Hotchkiss?

Fusion Focused, the podcast by Dr. Ella Fox-Widdows of CFS brought Jane on to discuss fusion’s importance to the planet and humanity. “Being able to see equitable energy available to all without fear of a monopolistic control, without making it the source of conflict. An opportunity to have peaceful environmentally stable positive energy for as many as we can supply. That would certainly change the standard of living across the world and would be a beautiful goal.” Listen here.

Climate News

The most recent IPCC report indicates we will likely miss our target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. GHG emissions have continued to increase, resulting in changes in weather and climate extremes across the world. Adaptation planning and implementation are helping, and while there are promising developments in low carbon technology, it’s not enough. Limiting human-caused global warming requires that we totally transform the way we live, work and play such that the emissions from our activities can be absorbed by carbon and methane sinks in the planetary ecosystems. Fusion is one technology that can help us reach net zero—we need to be ready to embrace it as soon as it’s ready.

Spotlight on Bianca Taylor, Climate and Economic Advisor

Bianca Taylor is Climate and Economic Advisor to ECG. Her international experience in finance, energy and macro policy is helping ECG to see fusion from different perspectives and different markets. Previously, Bianca spent 20 years as a sovereign credit analyst on the buy-side. She holds an MPP from UC Berkeley focused on energy and the environment, and a BA in economics from UC Santa Barbara. She is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a Fellow of the OpEd Project and Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and her views on climate and energy have been published in the Financial Times, Barron’s and The Hill.