UK fusion energy firm Tokamak eyes Hong Kong as one potential funding source to help it develop its zero-emission technology
- Nuclear fusion energy, if proven commercially viable, may offer clean, affordable and secure energy in the future
- Tokamak Energy says those investors that can take a long-term view on a new technology are ‘definitely paying attention’ to the area
UK fusion energy start-up Tokamak Energy will include Hong Kong among the target destinations for raising several hundred million US dollars in financing to help it prove the commercial viability of its next-generation, zero-emission, fusion energy technology.
The company, based near Oxford, has raised around US$250 million since its inception in 2009 to fund experimental reactors, said non-executive director David Gray. It plans to complete a pilot reactor by 2026 and a 200 megawatt commercial-scale prototype in the early 2030s.
“We will need to raise much more [funds] to do the next stage [of reactor construction],” said Gray in an interview. “We will soon be in the market to raise equity capital, I hope to be able to say something about that next year.”
“We will be looking [at] all the main financial centres, including Hong Kong,” added Gray.
Nuclear fusion energy, if proven commercially viable, may offer clean, affordable and secure energy in the future, as it does not rely on fuel imports and does not generate highly radioactive waste. The relatively compact size of fusion machines means they can also help to decarbonise energy-intensive industrial plants.
Since the required hydrogen atoms for nuclear fusion reaction to occur and release energy can be extracted from seawater or produced from lithium, fusion has the potential to be an almost inexhaustible source of energy.