Milena Roveda, chairman of the European Fusion Association, discusses the important actions needed to make fusion commercialisation a European reality.
Around the world, efforts to achieve fusion commercialization are continuing to gain momentum. Europe is a major contributor to such efforts, developing strong R&D infrastructure, fostering public-private partnerships, and coordinating national and EU-level strategies.
The European Fusion Association (EFA) was formed by leading European companies across the fusion value chain to support and accelerate the journey to commercialization of European fusion. EFA recognizes that the challenge of making industrial-scale fusion powerplants a reality is too great for a country or company to achieve on its own, supporting industry-wide collaboration and collaboration on science, finance and policy-making.
The Innovation Platform spoke with Milena Roveda, chairman of the European Association for Integration, to discuss the current direction of the European fusion industry and its hopes for the future.
Can you explain in detail about the European Fusion Association and how it can help accelerate European fusion development?
The European Fusion Association is an international nonprofit based in Brussels, bringing together large European companies from across the fusion value chain. EFA offers a platform that unifies European interests. We advocate bold political decision-making and innovative policies that transform the scientific advances of fusion into commercial realities. Our mission is to launch the European industrial renaissance and cement Europe’s role as a global fusion leader.
EFA has grown steadily since we first started and now represents more than 45 European companies.
Why is collaboration so important in the journey to fusion’s commercialization?
Europe has an incredible opportunity to grasp the fusion with both hands and act as an enabler for European industry to rise again. However, we recognize that the challenge of creating an industrial-scale fusion power plant is too big for a country or company to achieve on its own.
That’s why we pride ourselves on running for the industry, for the industry and providing a voice to European companies and interests. If you want to merge from the lab into the grid, industry-wide collaboration on science, funding and policy-making is absolutely essential.
Our role is to act as a vehicle for change, take real action to dismantle investments beyond mere advocacy, and enable public-private partnerships that realize fusion.
What is your important focus now?
We focus on putting in place appropriate regulations to cloud investments in European fusion. One must ensure that fusion and fission are not equally regulated. There are significant differences in safety considerations, environmental impacts, and overall technology. Having coordinated regulations for fusion is essential to ensure that sectors are not overloaded in ways that reduce costs and innovate. What you need is regulations that suit your purpose.
We leaned towards the strengths we have across the European fusion environment, leveraging our expertise throughout our membership to identify technology and supply chains as two different focus areas of advocacy.
On both topics, we recently established a working group with representatives and experts from across membership. Our aim is to as an industry to embrace a unified message for policymakers on the continent, and to ensure that we are clear about what is necessary to make fusion a reality and promote cooperative efforts to achieve this. There’s a lot to come from us about this over the next few months.
How do your priorities align with European fusion goals and strategies?
I think one of the key challenges is that Europe still lacks a consistent fusion strategy. The European Commission will propose something that includes details of public-private partnerships to speed up commercialization. But without this clear roadmap from the committee, the industry must move its own path forward.
That’s the reason why, for the most part, they founded EFA. This is to create a platform for collaboration, advocacy and action among the leading European fusion companies to address industry concerns and realize fusion. We have focused on some of the sector’s biggest challenges, including advocating for the necessary fusion regulations and creating advance pathways to strengthen the European workforce. Going forward, a more strategic direction is needed to give policymakers the industry and the broader investment community the necessary trust for the future of European integration.
What are the major challenges facing the fusion sector in Europe?
Over the past 20 years, we have seen the European economy fall at an increasing pace. Commercialization of fusion represents an opportunity to return the continent to prosperity, but there is a risk of missing out on this opportunity as economic growth slows and falling behind the US and China.
One of the key challenges associated with slowing growth is the shrinking of the EU workforce. I’ve seen this as heavy industries born in Europe are shrinking and moving overseas. Fusion cannot be a sacrifice to the same fate.
Europe has intrinsic fusion skills and expertise that spans the entire value chain. We have the knowledge and ability to create a global fusion supply chain on this continent as well as world-leading fusion technology. However, without targeted interventions and ambitions to grow the European fusion sector, there is a serious risk that these skills will move to other competing markets.
By combining the mission and industry to make commercial fusion a reality in Europe, we must maintain these skills and cement our European position as a global leader in fusion talent, focusing on enhancing the future fusion workforce.
Another important step in addressing these issues is to ensure that Europe has the capital needed to kickstart its industrial renaissance supported by fusion. Currently, only 11% of the $7 billion private capital that enters its fusion flows to Europe. One important barrier to inward investment is the implementation of appropriate regulations to support the growth of public-private partnerships. Without regulations protecting the intellectual property (IP) of innovative fusion technology developers, investments will continue to stall.
How can Europe compete with the US and China and others in the Global Fusion Race? What should I change to support this?
The key differentiator is our speed. Speed of innovation, regulation creation, and crowding investment. The EU’s approach to innovation is too often curtailed by bureaucracy and deficits.
Looking at China’s approach to industrialization, they move quickly and in the US, they have access to private capital that can accelerate the commercialization of fusion at full speed.
In Europe, they have resources, abilities and skills, but are much slower to promote action. Contrary to what people might think, Europe actually has the capital needed to create an industrial renaissance, but the rest of the puzzle is what delays investment. Systems that promote appropriate regulations, IP protection and public-private partnerships allow Europe to accelerate its approach and compete with the powers of other worlds to achieve fusion.
This article will also be featured in the 22nd edition of Quarterly Publication.
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