Tencent Holdings Limited (TCEHY)

[DiscoverGold]

Tencent (TCEHY) backs Oxford start-up’s quest for ‘holy grail’ of energy
By: Rachel Millard | February 13, 2022

• An Oxford University spin-off trying to crack the “holy grail” of energy production has raised $45m (£33m) from investors including the Chinese technology giant Tencent.

First Light Fusion is among the leaders in the global race to produce energy through nuclear fusion, which offers the prospect of abundant clean energy.

Shenzhen-based Tencent is investing in First Light for the first time, as is private investment firm Braavos Capital. Existing investors Oxford Science Enterprises, Hostplus and IP Group have also backed the fundraise. It brings the total outside backing for the venture, founded in 2011, to $107m.

Scientists have been trying to develop nuclear fusion for decades and the quest has taken on extra urgency in the push to cut carbon emissions.

The process involves fusing two atoms at very high temperatures, which then release huge amounts of energy. The reaction powers the Sun.

But creating the necessary conditions - including extreme temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius and high pressure - for the process is extremely difficult.

Kidlington-based First Light Fusion is developing a process which triggers the conditions by firing a projectile at extreme high speeds into a fuel pellet.

Last year it installed a 22-metre, 25,000kg gas gun which fires a 100g projectile at 6.5km/second - about twenty times the speed of sound.

Welcoming the new funding, chief executive Dr Nick Hawker said: "We remain very confident in our technology, our people and the potential of our unique approach.

"We continue to believe our inertial confinement approach offers the fastest and above all, most cost competitive route to grid ready fusion energy.”

Funding for First Light Fusion comes after researchers at the JET laboratory in Culham, near Oxford, last week set a record for the amount of fusion energy produced.

Researchers achieved 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy, well above the 22 megajoules achieved in 1997, albeit only enough to boil about 60 kettles of water...

Read Full Story »»»

DiscoverGold