Pacific Fusion breaks ground on net-gain fusion facility
Pacific Fusion started construction on a demonstration facility in New Mexico designed to generate as much energy as it consumes. The company aims to achieve net facility gain by 2030 and operate a commercial power plant in the mid-2030s. The site will also host national security experiments involving high-yield fusion.
The facility's design centers on 156 pulser modules, each containing hundreds of capacitors and switches arranged in stacked circular stages. A one-third-scale test earlier this year released 440 gigawatts in 80 nanoseconds, validating the architecture before full construction began. Each demonstration shot will produce roughly 100 megajoules, about ten times the output of the National Ignition Facility.
Pacific Fusion's milestone-based Series A, exceeding $1 billion, allowed the company to plan construction without repeated fundraising cycles. The company faces competition from several well-funded peers targeting grid-connected fusion by the mid-2030s. The Albuquerque site will also support government experiments in high-yield fusion, a capability currently concentrated at aging national laboratories.
If Pacific Fusion achieves net facility gain by 2030, it could accelerate the transition to clean baseload power, potentially reshaping electricity markets and reducing reliance on fossil fuels and intermittent renewables. Utilities, industrial energy consumers, and communities near aging power plants may be most affected. However, the technology's commercial viability remains unproven, and its impact will depend on whether the company can scale from demonstration to a one-shot-per-second power plant without cost overruns or technical setbacks.