Darmstadt-based ClimateTech startup Focused Energy opens new office in Austin

Posted on 2022-02-14 by wilskyw in Environment, Technology // 0 Comments

Focused Energy expands to the U.S. opening a corporate office in Austin, Texas in December 2021
Laser fusion company aims to use inertial fusion to enable climate-friendly energy on a large scale

Austin, Texas/ Darmstadt, Germany, 2022-Feb-14 — /EPR Network/ — Inertial fusion as a method to generate climate-friendly energy. That is the goal of ClimateTech startup Focused Energy. In order to achieve this within the next 15 years, the Darmstadt-based company has now opened another office in Austin, Texas, which is primarily tasked with laser technology and engineering. Focused Energy has developed a method that can not only be used to generate climate-friendly energy, but also to make the energy produced commercially viable on a large scale. State-of-the-art laser technology is used to initiate a fusion reaction between the atomic nuclei of two hydrogen isotopes, releasing “inertial fusion energy” (IFE). If successful, the energy yield from this is about one hundred times greater than the energy required to initiate the reaction. Thus, inertial fusion could be the key to nearly inexhaustible and clean energy production, as early as the next decade.

„We are pleased to now be able to provide space for our rapidly growing team overseas. We have been able to attract leading fusion experts and scientists from the U.S. and believe that Austin, as an emerging tech hub, is the best place to further advance our research. Beyond that, the proximity to the University of Texas at Austin and the associated research laboratories is crucial for us here. The opening of our Austin office brings us a major step closer to our vision of generating climate-neutral energy through inertial fusion,” says Thomas Forner, CEO at Focused Energy. The new office space will allow Focused Energy’s approach to fusion research to move forward more quickly, as well as enable even closer collaboration with U.S.- based institutions such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF; a department of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California). Recently, scientists at NIF have succeeded in achieving a record energy yield in an IFE laser experiment. For the first time, inertial fusion generated almost as much energy as had to be supplied at the outset. According to leading experts, Focused Energy is pursuing the most promising approach to realize commercial use of inertial fusion-derived energy as soon as possible. More specifically, the process developed by Focused Energy, which involves shelling the already compressed fuel with again a short pulse petawatt laser, could simplify the process of ignition and get a fusion reaction underway more quickly.

“Especially due to the rapid progress in laser research in recent years, it is important to be able to communicate closely with leading players in this field. This allows us to optimally benefit from new research findings and collaborate more effectively with U.S.-based research institutions and technical laboratories,” says Todd Ditmire, who, in addition to his position as CTO at Focused Energy, is also a professor at the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin.

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image: Copyright Focused Energy

About Focused Energy
Focused Energy is a start-up company dedicated to fusion energy as a means to generate clean electrical energy for increasing societal needs. The university-affiliated company, based in Darmstadt, Germany, and the United States, was founded in July 2021 after years of extensive research. The founding and management team includes entrepreneur Thomas Forner (CEO Focused Energy), engineer Dr. Anika Stein (COO Focused Energy), as well as laser and fusion experts Prof. Dr. Markus Roth (TU Darmstadt, CSO Focused Energy) and Prof. Dr. Todd Ditmire (UT Austin/Texas, CTO Focused Energy).

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