Fusion energy is emerging as a powerful answer to our world’s growing need for clean, reliable, and scalable energy. As climate change accelerates and technology developments such as AI drive up electricity demand, there is a growing urgency to find solutions that go beyond intermittent solar and wind. Fusion, which mimics the energy-generating process that powers the sun, promises abundant, safe and clean energy —without producing carbon emissions or long-lasting nuclear waste. Proxima Fusion is focusing on the clearest and most robust path to commercial fusion energy: quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators. Spun out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in 2023, Proxima is building on the groundbreaking results of IPPs Wendelstein 7-X experiment, the world’s most advanced stellarator (located in Greifwald, Germany).
Historically, the leading path toward fusion has focused on devices called tokamaks. While promising, tokamaks come with serious hurdles, such as instability in the plasma and the need for constant, complex control. Thanks to major advances in superconducting materials and computational design tools, as well as significant evidence from W7-X, stellarator design is now able to overcome the challenges of tokamaks. The current challenge is primarily one of engineering integration—bringing these components together into a system that can operate reliably at scale.
Proxima is using a simulation-driven approach to designing and building stellarator fusion power plants that leverage advanced optimization methods and computing power, resulting in high speed iteration work at low cost. Proxima is building a world-class team of engineers, physicists and operators for large scale infrastructure, and closing partnerships with industry leaders and the IPP in order to build - first - a proof of concept stellarator demonstrator (called Alpha) by 2031, followed closely by a commercial fusion plant within the mid-to-late 2030s.
The CSFPP (current-free stellarator fusion power plant) project aims to support the development of the demonstrator stellarator, Alpha, as well as Proximas commercial roadmap. The successful deployment of Alpha will de-risk fusion technologies and enable critical fusion industry growth in Europe.
