Tencent backs Oxford start-up’s quest for ‘holy grail’ of energy

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.

Ian Chapman, head of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said it was a landmark event, adding: "We're building the knowledge and developing the new technology required to deliver a low carbon, sustainable source of baseload energy that helps protect the planet for future generations.”

An array of commercial fusion start-ups have emerged around the world in recent years as hopes rise that the technology, which has been promised since the 1950s, could finally be within reach. Oxford and its nearby Culham Centre for Fusion Energy is among the global centres of the race.

First Light's rivals include Tokamak Energy, which is also based there and which has raised £123.1m from investors including Legal & General and the billionaire Hans-Peter Wild, owner of the fruit juice brand Capri-Sun. Canada's General Fusion, supported with $322m from investors including Jeff Bezos, is also building a demonstration reactor at Culham.

In the United States, Helion Energy has raised nearly $580m from backers including the co-founder of Facebook, Dustin Moskovitz. The best-funded fusion start-up is Commonwealth Fusion, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been handed more than $2bn by the likes of Bill Gates and George Soros.