According to Cailian Press, the Italian energy giant Eni announced on Thursday that it signed a strategic framework agreement with MIT-bred fusion energy startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to support the development and deployment of commercial fusion energy.

The strategic framework, signed by Bob Mumgaard, CEO of CFS, and Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni, during a meeting at CFS’ new 50-acre fusion campus in Devens, Massachusetts, is set to combine the innovative fusion energy research with the speed of the private sector to deliver the fastest path to clean commercial fusion energy to combat climatechange.

It’s known that the two companies started cooperation in 2018. The new initiative will allow the two companies to join forces in several exploratory domains such as technology collaboration, supply chain development, and innovative solutions and business models for CFS’ global ARC business.

“The collaboration framework between CFS and our long-standing partner, Eni, has great potential to advance our efforts on key global challenges and opportunities in transforming the energy landscape with a limitless supply of clean fusion energy,” said CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard.

In September 2021, CFS announced the successful test of its HTS magnets, which could ensure plasma confinement during nuclear fusion reactions.

Fig.1 SPARC fusion prototype demonstration   Source：CFS Official website

At present, CFS is working to build the prototype device SPARC, a compact high-field fusion device with the same size as medium-scale devices but with stronger fields.

The CFS roadmap envisages the completion and operational testing of SPARC, the first commercially viable net fusion machine, in 2025, and the start-up of ARC, the first fusion power plant on the grid, by the early 2030s.

Eni believes the utilization of fusion energy will contribute substantially to the energy transition challenge and help the company realize its net-zero goal in 2050.

Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said in a statement, “We will see the first CFS power plant based on magnetic confinement fusion at the beginning of the next decade, with then almost two decades ahead to deploy the technology and achieve the energy transition goals by 2050.”

He commented that “having this technology at the industrial level, providing large quantities of zero carbon energy produced in a safe, clean, and virtually inexhaustible way, will mean that we will contribute substantially to the energy transition challenge. This is why we are facing a potentially momentous technological breakthrough.”