Zap Energy, a pioneering fusion energy company, announced the closing of $130 million in its Series D round, bringing its total funding past $330 million. This new capital injection will allow the company to continue the development of its compact fusion systems and to continue moving towards the realization of commercial fusion power plants.
Century, Zap Energy’s new testing platform, has begun operations in Everett, Washington. This platform is the first fully integrated demonstration of several technologies relevant to fusion power plants, including one of the largest tests of a liquid metal blanket in contact with plasma to date. In less than three hours, Century has already produced more than 1,000 consecutive plasmas in a chamber lined with circulating liquid metal.
Investment and Strategic Partnerships
The $130 million fundraising was led by Soros Fund Management LLC, with participation from new investors including BAM Elevate, Emerson Collective, Leitmotif, Mizuho Financial Group, Plynth Energy and Xplor Ventures. Existing investors who also participated in this round include Addition, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, DCVC, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon Capital and Shell Ventures. This diverse set of investors highlights the growing confidence in Zap Energy’s fusion technologies.
The funds raised will be allocated to the parallel development of plasma research and development as well as the engineering and integration of the plant’s systems. This includes the company’s next generation of FuZE series devices and a state-of-the-art pulse capacitor bank. These developments are essential to achieving the goals set by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) milestone-based fusion development program.
Technological Progress and Future Goals
Century represents a crucial milestone in Zap Energy’s strategy to commercialize fusion energy. The platform is designed to simulate the operation of a power plant by firing high voltage pulses every ten seconds for over two hours, totaling over 1,000 pulses at 0.1 Hz. This operation requires the circulation of 70 kilograms of liquid bismuth in its initial configuration, amounting to well over a ton in its final configuration. Air-cooled heat exchangers will remove the intense plasma heat absorbed by the liquid metal.
Zap Energy’s fusion approach, known as shear flow-stabilized Z-pinch, avoids the use of large superconducting magnets and powerful lasers, making the system much more compact than conventional approaches. To generate net energy from fusion, plasmas must satisfy the triple fusion product: be hot enough, dense, and maintained long enough. With rapid advances in plasma physics and recent results confirming the viability of their approach, Zap Energy is working to develop devices capable of withstanding extreme conditions and maximizing energy production.
Zap Energy Vision and Strategy
Benj Conway, CEO of Zap Energy, said: “The race to commercialize fusion has historically been viewed as a triathlon: science, then engineering, then commercialization. But at Zap, we try to swim, cycle and run at the same time – a parallel approach is essential to deliver the business merger in a timely manner. Century is a vital part of the engineering phase and we are ramping up quickly. »
Matthew C. Thompson, vice president of systems engineering at Zap, added: “Since its inception, Zap Energy’s founders had a clear idea of how a plant based on our Z-pinch configuration would operate. Our task is to develop and validate these plans by building, testing and maturing key technologies. Century is our next major step in this effort. »
Impact on the Energy Sector
Century, with an average input power of 100 kilowatts, is comparable to the average electricity consumption of 75 American homes concentrated in a room the size of a water heater. The platform, whose central structure is similar to that of a double-decker bus, approaches the final size of a single Zap Energy module capable of producing 50 megawatts of electricity. Future power plants will integrate several of these modules to achieve significant production capacities.
Zap Energy currently has 150 employees located between Seattle and San Diego and is backed by leading financial and strategic investors. The company positions itself as a key player in the development of sustainable and economical energy solutions thanks to its innovative fusion technology.
