Eni strikes more than $1 billion power deal with US fusion firm Commonwealth.
Italian energy company Eni said on Monday it struck a more than $1 billion power purchase with Commonwealth Fusion System’s project in Virginia that the companies hope by the early 2030s will generate electricity through the reaction that fires the sun.
Eni agreed to buy power from the 400-megawatt (MW) ARC project in Chesterfield County, Virginia, despite CFS not knowing exactly what the project cost or when it will be completed.
Any power generated by the project is expected to go to the grid in Virginia, home to the world’s biggest hub of energy-hungry data centers.
“This is showing in concrete terms, that people that use large amounts of energy, that know the energy market, that they want fusion power and that they’re willing to contract for it,” Bob Mumgaard, CFS CEO and co-founder, said about the deal.
Big Tech, utilities and energy companies are scrambling to secure electricity supply as U.S. power demand rises for the first time in two decades on artificial intelligence and data centers.
Eni, traditionally a major fossil fuel company, is rebranding itself as an energy technology company, investing in CFS since 2018.
Eni believes fusion is a “very disruptive, fundamental way,” to solve energy problems including cost and sustainability, Lorenzo Fiorillo, Eni’s technology, R&D and digital director, told reporters in a teleconference.
CFS, which spun out of MIT in 2018, has raised nearly $3 billion in capital. It struck a similar power purchase deal in June with Alphabet’s Google for 200 MW from The ARC plant for an undisclosed price.
Source: Globalbankingandfinance
