Google signs deal for 200 MW from nuclear fusion project in Virginia

Google LLC has signed an agreement to purchase 200 MW from Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC's planned nuclear fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and is deepening its stake in the company.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) expects its ARC commercial fusion power plant to deliver energy to the grid beginning in the early 2030s.

Google, an investor in CFS since 2021, also has the option to offtake power from additional ARC plants, CFS said in a June 30 news release. Google, an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, is increasing its stake in CFS, though the companies did not disclose further details.

"By entering into this agreement with CFS, we hope to help prove out and scale a promising pathway toward commercial fusion power," Google's head of advanced energy, Michael Terrell, said in a statement. "We're excited to make this longer-term bet on a technology with transformative potential to meet the world's future energy demand, and support CFS in their efforts to reach the scientific and engineering milestones needed to get there."

CFS is constructing its fusion generator, SPARC, in Devens, Massachusetts, where the company is headquartered. SPARC is a high-magnetic-field, compact version of a fusion device known as a tokamak, the precursor to ARC.

Fusion could generate four times more energy per kilogram of fuel than fission, used in conventional nuclear plants, and nearly four million times more energy than burning oil or coal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Fusion power is within our grasp thanks in part to forward-thinking partners like Google," CFS CEO and co-founder Bob Mumgaard said. "Our strategic deal with Google is the first of many as we move to demonstrate fusion energy from SPARC and then bring our first power plant online.

"We aim to demonstrate fusion's ability to provide reliable, abundant, clean energy at the scale needed to unlock economic growth and improve modern living — and enable what will be the largest market transition in history."

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin approached Mumgaard about locating CFS' first commercial fusion generator, with a capacity of 400 MW, in the state. Virginia has the largest datacenter demand concentration in the world, Youngkin said in March.

"Fusion is so important because it changes the whole game," Youngkin said March 11 at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. "There's a race to lead the world in power generation."

Fusion power reactors promise an unlimited source of energy at a lower cost and without the waste byproducts of conventional fissile-fuel nuclear plants. Rather than splitting atoms, a deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion reactor combines hydrogen molecules to produce high-temperature plasma that can be used to channel heat to generate electricity. Researchers have focused on DT reactions because they produce large amounts of energy and occur at lower temperatures than other elements.

The plasma would be contained using a strong magnetic field. The magnets require large amounts of electricity, and powering them to generate the field while generating significantly more energy for the grid has been a challenge.

Other Google nuclear deals

Google has made several investments in different nuclear power technologies within the past year.

In May, Google announced a partnership with Elementl Power Inc. to pre-position three sites for advanced nuclear projects totaling 1.8 GW, committing early-stage development capital for the projects, each planned to generate at least 600 MW, with the option for commercial offtake once complete.

In October 2024, Google and advanced nuclear technology developer Kairos Power LLC announced an agreement to deploy 500 MW of advanced nuclear projects beginning in 2030 to power Google datacenters.

Under that agreement, Kairos will develop, construct and operate a series of advanced reactors and sell the power to Google under power purchase agreements to provide electricity to datacenters, with the first deployment planned by 2030 and subsequent deployments set through 2035.