Helion is expected to have its fusion generation device online by 2028 and to reach its target power generation of 50 megawatts or more within an agreed-upon one-year ramp up period. When the fusion device is fully up to speed producing 50 megawatts of energy, it will be able to power the equivalent of approximately 40,000 homes in Washington state.
While Helion’s deal with Microsoft is to get 50 megawatts online, the company eventually aims to produce a gigawatt of electricity, which is one billion watts, or 20 times the 50 megawatts it is selling to Microsoft.
Microsoft will pay for the megawatt hours of electricity as Helion delivers them to the grid.
I will bet $200 that helion is not the first net positive fusion reactor. I will bet a further $200 that the first such reactor is in China. That said, talk is cheap and I doubt many here would take that bet against me.
My prediction: China will have the first working net positive fusion reactor deployed in the field, but some US company will preempt the announcement by claiming to have the first one.
US fusion deployments won’t happen for 2-3 years after that announcement, at which point China will have half their grid running on fusion power.
Americans will all widely proclaim to be the “inventors” of fusion and winners of the space race, despite all reactors sold coming from China. Any attempts to present this information to them will result in a screed about “China stealing” or some shit.
