Commonwealth Fusion Systems is now the first fusion developer to brave a major US interconnection queue. (POWER)
Yesterday, Commonwealth announced it had applied to plug a 400-MW plant (the Fall Line Fusion Power Station) into PJM. The MA-based company plans to bring the plant online in VA’s Data Center Alley by the early 2030s.
The details: CFS relies on a relatively small tokamak system powered by high-temp superconducting magnets, and its demo machine is currently about 75% complete. Backed by nearly $3B in capital, the developer has already secured Dominion Energy as a utility partner and inked offtake agreements with Google and Italian energy firm Eni.
What’s next: Perfecting commercial fusion will prove a tremendous feat…but so is surviving PJM's interconnection process. The grid operator will now run the application through a 90-day review window before launching the extensive engineering studies required to map out network upgrades.