Latest news with #KieranFurlong
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Next-gen startup announces groundbreaking $36 million plan to unleash limitless energy device: 'We have a design'
Nuclear fusion — and its potential for abundant, clean energy — has been around for years, and while breakthroughs have been made, up to this point, no one has been able to harness that energy and produce it at scale. But according to TechCrunch, the startup Realta Fusion might be about to change that. Traditional forms of energy generation, like coal and gas, produce massive amounts of planet-warming pollution like carbon dioxide. This supercharges extreme weather events, like floods and drought, that threaten lives and the global food supply. Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, creates no planet-warming pollution while at the same time producing near limitless energy. Realta is looking to harness this energy with what it's calling Anvil, which will use the magnetic mirror concept. This works by confining energized particles, known as plasma, in a symmetrical bottle shape with powerful magnets at each end pushing the plasma toward the center. Weaker magnets will help form a plasma cylinder in the middle. The plasma will reach incredibly high temperatures, and the particles will begin to fuse, releasing a massive amount of energy. Realta has already raised $36 million and is preparing for the next round of investment to help make the Anvil prototype reactor a reality. "By the end of our Series A investment period," Realta co-founder and CEO Kieran Furlong told TechCrunch, "we'll have said, 'Hey, we have a design. We're shovel ready to go and build Anvil.'" Building these complex machines takes a huge upfront investment. Realta hopes to build a power plant that would initially be able to supply power at $100 per megawatt-hour. One megawatt can power roughly 750 to 1,000 homes at once. To build and run a natural gas power plant, it costs anywhere from $45 to $100 per megawatt-hour. Realta hopes to eventually get to the point that it can produce energy at $40 per megawatt-hour as technology improves. Realta is well in its way. Last year, it set a record for a magnetic field confining a plasma. Still, while some scientists are optimistic that this energy can be harnessed within the next decade, others believe it will be much longer before consumers can reap the benefits. While we wait for nuclear fusion to become a viable source of energy on a wide scale, the best way for consumers to get cheap and clean energy is to install solar panels. The process of finding the best deals, as well as any local or federal tax incentives, can seem daunting, but EnergySage provides a free service that will do all of that for you. Should we be harnessing the ocean to power our homes? Absolutely Leave it be It depends I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
TechCrunch
13-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Realta Fusion taps $36M in fresh funds for its fusion-in-a-bottle reactor
Some fusion companies might be hitting a rough patch, but Realta Fusion is bucking the trend with a new fundraising round it says will allow it to finalize the design of its Anvil prototype reactor. 'By the end of our Series A investment period, we'll have said, 'Hey, we have a design. We're shovel ready to go and build Anvil,'' Kieran Furlong, co-founder and CEO of Realta, told TechCrunch. The company hopes to make sufficient progress this year and next so it can pitch investors on a Series B, which would go toward building the Anvil prototype, Furlong said. Realta raised $36 million in a round led by Future Ventures with participation from other investors, including Avila VC, GSBackers, Khosla Ventures, Mayfield, SiteGround, TitletownTech, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The startup previously raised $9 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures. Last summer, it flipped the switch on a pair of magnets and, within two weeks, set a record for a magnetic field confining a plasma. Fusion has long been proposed as a clean energy source, but so far, only one experiment has been able to hit a major milestone known as scientific breakeven, which describes how much energy fusion reactions are expected to release. That result was still far below what scientists expect a commercial fusion power plant to require. Still, many scientists and engineers are optimistic that commercial fusion power plants will be viable sometime in the next decade. Realta's are among them. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW The startup hopes to build power plants cheaply enough to supply power at $100 per megawatt-hour initially with an eye toward lowering that to $40 per megawatt-hour as it refines its technology. Today, the most efficient natural gas power plants cost around $45 to $105 per megawatt-hour to build and run, according to Lazard. Realta spun out of the University of Wisconsin three years ago. Since then, the team, which is now 18 people, has been working alongside university scientists to develop a reactor concept that's been debated for decades. The concept, known as a magnetic mirror, confines plasma in a symmetrical bottle shape. Powerful magnets at both ends pinch high-energy particles known as plasma, pushing it back toward the center. The magnetic fields expand as they head toward the center, where weaker magnets help form a plasma cylinder in the middle. To scale the reactor's output, the company can add more middle sections, which should be cheaper to manufacture because of the less powerful magnets. If the magnets work as expected, the plasma will reach incredibly high temperatures for long enough that the particles will start to fuse, releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process. Realta is one of a handful of fusion startups that have emerged in Wisconsin in recent years. As energy demands for data centers have ramped up in the region — including a forthcoming Microsoft facility near Foxconn's infamous project — Badger State politicians have begun mulling legislation to lure the nuclear industry, both fusion and fission. 'The state legislature is definitely paying attention,' Furlong said. 'We've talked to both sides, and we think this is an opportunity for bipartisan work here.' Ultimately, Realta and the rest of the fusion industry need to muscle through the coming years to bring their plans to fruition and, if all goes well, prove that fusion power is viable. 'We've had the Gartner hype cycle. We're kind of coming down the other side now,' Furlong said, referring to a tech industry theory that outlines the adoption and reception of new technologies. 'What we want to avoid is seeing a few companies blow up spectacularly and spoil it for the rest of the industry,' he said. 'We wish everyone success. We all want fusion to succeed. I think we all recognize we've got 40 or 50 companies working on it right now. Obviously, not all of them will survive.'
