A new $1 billion nuclear fusion research and manufacturing campus will be coming to the Mesa del Sol neighborhood of Albuquerque, as part of a partnership with Pacific Fusion — a commercial fusion energy company, headquartered in the California Bay Area — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Friday, Sept. 26.
“We’re showing, not just America but the whole world that smart regulatory aspects can make a difference in our renewable energy design and making sure our electricity prices stay low, that we’re protecting New Mexicans every day,” Lujan Grisham said.
Keith LeChien, co-founder and chief technology officer of Pacific Fusion, said that the company plans to expand further in the future and keep fundraising for the project past the $1 billion mark.
Pacific Fusion has already raised more $900 million in private capital from numerous venture capital groups, LeChien said.
“We’re excited to expand our operations to New Mexico for many reasons, chief among them the close partnership we’ve developed with state and local leadership, who have made this project possible,” LeChien said. “Working alongside the Governor’s office, the Economic Development Department, the City of Albuquerque, key legislators from both parties and the national labs, we’ve built true partnerships over the past several months. That collaboration gives us confidence that together we’ll be able to move quickly to deliver on the promise of low-cost fusion power.”
Fusion is the process of joining atoms together to create energy. Pacific Fusion uses pulser-driven inertial fusion, in which a large electric current is run across a small metal cylinder containing fusion fuel, creating a magnetic field that squeezes the fuel to create a release of energy that is harnessed into electricity. Research at various U.S. National Labs, including the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratories, led to the creation of this approach, LeChien said.
It is expected that the facility will create more than 200 long-term jobs, in addition to hundreds of short-term jobs created in the construction process, with hiring already underway for those jobs, according to Pacific Fusion. The company is exploring partnership opportunities with both Central New Mexico Community College and the University of New Mexico to create internships, workplace development programs and specialized trainings.
“Pacific Fusion’s decision to build in New Mexico proves that our state can compete — and win — in the race to attract the most innovative companies in the world,” Lujan Grisham said. “This project will create good jobs, expand our clean-tech economy and ensure New Mexico continues to lead in the industries of the future.”
While the facility is expected to have more fusion energy output than it takes to run the facility by 2030, the main purpose of the campus will be one of research and manufacturing rather than functioning as a power plant, according to Pacific Fusion.
“We can capture energy that essentially nature has provided us. It just took us this long to figure out how to use it. And in this case, clean renewable energy; the promise of fusion we’ve talked about for a long time and no one has actually been able to deliver, and that’s why Pacific Fusion is so exciting for us,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said.
Of the energy produced in New Mexico, 47.5% comes from renewable sources, nearly double the national average of 24.1%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. However, most of the energy consumed in the state is from either petroleum, natural gas or coal. The state currently produces no energy from nuclear sources.
“Today is proof of the assertion that we have passed a turning point — that our city is not only on the map, but can define the next chapter of clean-energy innovation,” Keller said.
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Jaden McKelvey-Francis is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or on X @jadenmckelvey
