DOE Announces New Decadal Fusion Energy Strategy
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the DOE Fusion Energy Strategy 2024.
The newly released DOE Fusion Energy Strategy 2024 is organized around three pillars: closing the science and technology (S&T) gaps to a commercially relevant fusion pilot plant; preparing the path to sustainable, equitable commercial fusion deployment; and building and leveraging external partnerships.
“With today’s announcements, DOE has shown once again that we are ambitiously implementing our U.S. Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy,” said DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk. “We will leverage the opportunities enabled by our world-leading public and private fusion leadership, including humanity’s first-ever demonstration of fusion ignition at our National Ignition Facility as well as major new advances in technologies such as high-temperature superconductors, advanced materials, and artificial intelligence to accelerate fusion energy. The development of fusion energy as a clean, safe, abundant energy source has become a global race, and the U.S. will stay in the lead.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, In support of DOE’s fusion energy strategy, DOE also announced a $180 million funding opportunity for Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives. The FIRE Collaboratives are aimed at supporting the further creation of a fusion innovation ecosystem by forming teams that will have a collective goal of bridging the Department’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program’s foundational and enabling science research with the needs of the growing fusion industry, including the technology roadmaps of the awardees of the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. These Collaboratives are envisioned as dynamic hubs of innovation to help bolster US-based manufacturing and supply chains, driving advancements in fusion energy research in collaboration with both public and private entities.
The FIRE Collaboratives Funding Opportunity Announcement, sponsored by the FES program within the Department’s Office of Science, can be found on the Funding Opportunities webpage and is open to accredited U.S. colleges and universities, national laboratories, nonprofits, and private companies.
