The Italian energy group founded by Enrico Mattei, Eni, announced on March 9 that they’ve signed a Framework Agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to collaborate on fusion energy projects, with the aim of accelerating the industrialization of fusion energy.
CFS is a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It and Eni first began to collaborate in 2018.
The Eni press release explained: “CFS has the fastest pathway to commercial deployment of fusion energy. In September 2021, the company reached a major milestone with the successful test of its high-temperature superconducting magnet technology: the strongest magnet of its kind in the world, which will ensure plasma confinement in the magnetic fusion process, and which has paved the way for achieving net energy from fusion in a future demonstration plant.
“The CFS path with support from Eni is one built on a pragmatic and progressive approach towards the deployment of magnetic confinement fusion technology in the next decade. SPARC [a tokamak under development by CFS], projected to become the world’s first magnetic confinement pilot plant with net production of fusion energy, is in construction and will be operational in 2025. SPARC will pave the way for ARC—the first commercial power plant capable of feeding electricity into the grid, which is projected to be operational in the early 2030s.
