1 week Ago
The upfront investment in 'Starmaker One', a British private fusion investment fund, is expected to unlock further private sector investment as the fusion industry grows, creating highly skilled jobs and establishing the UK as a world leader in the technology. Fusion combines two forms of hydrogen and heats them at extreme temperatures, releasing vast amounts of energy. It already supports thousands of jobs in the UK, in regions such as Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and South Yorkshire, with thousands more to follow as the technology advances.
It is a key industry sector in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, with independent research from London Economics showing every £1 invested in fusion benefits the economy by nearly £4. The government hopes the cash injection will give the private sector confidence to invest in fusion, developing its vast potential as an unlimited source of energy. The funding boost will help small fusion companies to provide training for their workforce in key areas such as physics, engineering, and chemistry.
It will also support companies in developing technologies and capitalising on the opportunities of fusion energy in markets such as magnetics, industrial AI, robotics, healthcare, transportation, and energy storage. Science Minister and Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor Champion, Sir Patrick Vallance, said: "Fusion energy is a technology with enormous potential, and an industry in which the UK is already well established. "This investment will help to unlock the funding the fusion industry needs to grow, which will boost regions across the UK such as Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire, and in Culham in Oxfordshire, the epicentre of UK fusion.
" The investment in Starmaker One signals the first early-stage fusion energy venture capital fund outside the US and the first of its kind to partner with the government as an investor. The investment follows a government commitment for a record level of £410 million, announced in January, for UK fusion research and collaboration with other countries to develop clean, unlimited power and drive economic growth. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: "This government is taking back control of Britain’s energy by driving for clean homegrown power through our Plan for Change.
"Fusion has the potential to provide us with energy security, whilst attracting the best technologies to our shores and training up the next generation of British scientists and engineers. "We are backing both nuclear and fusion power, and today we take a step forward in growing this exciting industry.".
