The US has a new roadmap for fusion energy, without the funds to back it up

"The Department of Energy (DOE) released a new roadmap for the US to realize the decades-long dream of harnessing fusion energy. It's a commitment to support research and development efforts and pursue public-private partnerships to finally build the first generation of fusion power plants. And of course, the plan hypes up AI as both a tool that can lead to new breakthroughs and as the motivation to create a new energy source that can satiate data centers' growing electricity demands."

"The DOE is eyeing an extremely ambitious timeline, although the details on how to accomplish that are vague considering success still relies on achieving scientific breakthroughs that have evaded scientists for the better part of a century. Moreover, the burgeoning ecosystem of startups and researchers committed to this task is clamoring for more cash - funds the DOE admits it doesn't yet have to give."

"A press release from the DOE yesterday boasts that its new strategy aims to deploy commercial-scale fusion power to electricity grids by the mid-2030s. The actual roadmap, however, paints a fuzzier picture. The document says in bold that its goal "is to deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale up in the 2030s." Regardless, there are still a lot of hurdles and uncertainties to face, which could realistically make powering our homes and businesses with fusion energy decades away, if ever."

The Department of Energy released a roadmap to pursue commercial fusion power, committing to research funding and public-private partnerships to build first-generation fusion plants. The strategy emphasizes use of AI both as a research tool and as a driver for new energy to meet growing data center electricity demand. The DOE targets deployment of commercial-scale fusion to grids by the mid-2030s while framing the roadmap as delivering public infrastructure to support private-sector scale-up. The plan faces major scientific hurdles, uncertain timelines, and funding shortfalls, with startups and researchers seeking more capital than currently available.

Read at The Verge