Nuclear Fusion: how the USA tries to hook the most innovative European companies
German nuclear fusion startup Marvel Fusion has been offered a deal by a US-based entity, which, if accepted, would mean the company will build its demonstration lab in America. The move comes as European politicians fight to keep the continent's climate-tech companies in the face of generous subsidies from other nations. A relatively easy operation, given that the EU offers less aid and highly complicated by an asphyxiating bureaucracy, both Community and national.
Hendrik Brandis, an investor in Earlybird, confirmed the bid to build the demonstration plant in the U.S.
“The only prerequisite is that the demonstrator will be in America, not Europe,” Brandis said. "If we can't find a respective funding opportunity in Europe, in the next few months to come, that Marvel technology, at least, will go away." The company's headquarters will remain in Munich, but the technological realization will go to the USA.
Marvel declined to comment on the deal. Marvel's latest round was a €35m Series A in February last year led by Munich-based Earlybird VC.
The USA on the attack
Marvel highlighted how, although the European technical environment is excellent, there are serious problems in financing projects "European and national financing programs suffer from high bureaucratic obstacles and the lack of decisive risk-taking". With the risk of undergoing criminal or administrative investigations, no bureaucrat takes the risk of authorizing anything, and this blocks research in advanced investment-intensive sectors.
A growing number of major European tech companies have been tempted to move to the United States in the wake of the country's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $369 billion subsidy package for green technologies. That said, Sifted understands that Marvel's move isn't directly related to the IRA's bill, which doesn't subsidize fusion technology.
Since the IRA was announced last August, several major European climate-tech companies have headed to the United States. The continent's best-funded battery maker, Northvolt, is building a plant in the US (along with four in various stages of completion in Europe), and Climeworks, a leading direct air capture startup, also announced the intention to start operations in the United States.
Marvel technology
Nuclear fusion involves fusing two atoms together to generate an enormous amount of energy, much more than that created by nuclear fission – the type of nuclear energy we know today – and with much less radioactive waste.
Marvel uses ultrashort pulse lasers on a reactor filled with hydrogen isotopes to create the conditions for a fusion reaction. This technology avoids the need for extremely high temperatures which are a barrier for many other melting companies.
The startup uses several publicly funded laser facilities in Europe and the United States. It has operations in Germany, Romania, Texas and Colorado. It is using a laser system at Colorado State University and one at the University of Texas to test its technology.
The company is the fourth best-capitalised nuclear fusion startup in Europe, having secured €60 million in private capital and €45 million in public cooperation projects from the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIND).
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The article Nuclear Fusion: how the USA is trying to hook the most innovative European companies comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/fusione-nucleare-come-gli-usa-cercano-di-agganciare-le-aziende-europee-piu-innovative/ on Wed, 26 Jul 2023 09:11:53 +0000.