IEEE Clean Energy Fusion

Join us for a lunch session on Clean Energy Fusion with Moein Borghei from Avalanche Energy. Fusion energy has been a long-held dream of not just scientists, but also the general public, as a clean, safe, and abundant energy source. Many academic institutions, national labs, and private companies have been and are currently working to generate more power than the amount needed to operate the device. Although progress was slow in the early 2000s, in recent years, the fusion industry has been revitalized and attracted nearly $3 billion in investment in 2022 alone. Avalanche Energy, a VC-backed start-up, is focusing on a novel fusion configuration known as the Orbitron. The Orbitron uses a voltage difference of hundreds of kilovolts to confine the fusion fuels, while co-confining electrons using a weak magnetic field. Unlike conventional power plant-sized fusion reactors, Avalanche Energy is developing a device the size of a lunch pail that allows for rapid testing, low investment, and modularity. Its potential applications are vast, from powering electric vehicles and spacecrafts to providing electricity to remote areas around the world. Additionally, a multi-kW power pack of this size can be used as a distributed generation unit in microgrids, eliminating the uncertainty of renewables and the emissions of fossil fuel-based generators. Co-sponsored by: IEEE Power and Energy Society Speaker(s): Moein Borghei, Agenda: 12:00 pm PST IEEE Announcements 12:02 pm PST Introduction of the Speaker 12:04 pm PST Presentation 12:45 pm PST Q&A Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/344192