Dr Melanie Windridge interviews Dr Phil Larochelle, Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, to explore key contextual questions on fusion as an investment opportunity:

• Why is investor interest in fusion growing? How investible is fusion?
• How does fusion fit in renewables asset class? And among ESG investments?
• What is needed for fusion to main-stream, and how does it get there?

A panel of senior representatives from the world’s leading fusion energy companies discuss and define the path to commercialisation of fusion energy:

• What is the current status of the leading technologies?
• Is progress accelerating? What challenges remain to achieving breakeven?
• What is the consensus view on most likely/worst case for fusion in the grid?
• How does the path evolve as it moves from science and tech, to engineering, to construction, to commercial risk?
• What is the relationship between the timeframe for commercialisation and that for strong investment returns?
   

A panel of leading, existing investors in fusion share their thoughts on fusion as an investment opportunity:

• What are expectations, & over what time horizon, and how has fusion performed vs. expectations thus far?
• Most fusion efforts focus on capex-intensive MCF, how does their risk profile compare to, for example, ICF?
• Does allocation to novel/revived early stage initiatives such as z-pinches, non-thermal fusion, cusps make sense from a portfolio perspective?
• Is it preferable to have one large investment in a validated approach or to make several smaller early-stage investments in novel approaches?
• Investing in a fusion fund v. a broader fund with allocations to fusion

A panel of investors with allocations to renewables, alternative energy, deep-tech and/or fusion explore the role of fusion in an investment portfolio:

• How does fusion compare to renewables/alternative energy or tech?
• Can fusion enhance short- and long-term returns? Does it reduce risk/bring diversification to a portfolio? ? What’s an ideal weighting towards fusion?
• Many investors lack the in-house expertise to assess the merits of fusion technology and there is little public research available to assist analysts. How can technical analysis/diligence be effected efficiently?
• Is fusion the ideal long-term hedge v. fossil fuels?
• For a climate tech investor, How does fusion compare to fission and esp to SMR? Are they best seen as alternative or complementary opportunities?

The risk profiles of fusion companies vary greatly depending on their approach and the engineering and construction issues that result. Investing in companies that seek to resolve these challenges can both give diverse exposure in fusion and other markets and a quicker path to profitability.

• What are the technical challenges in fusion and how might these present investment opportunities?
• How is the fusion supply-chain structured? What supply-chain businesses can give diverse exposure to the fusion and other markets?
• Is exposure to companies with adjacent initiatives that may generate revenues – tritium breeding, magnets or lasers, medtech etc – superior to those with laser-focus on delivering fusion energy?
• To what extent does this strategy mitigate fusion investment risks?

A panel comprising senior executives from a leading fusion company, & their investors explore the capital-raising process from start-up to major fusion company.

A panel of senior representatives from public and private sector entities discuss how they can best work together to advance the sector:

• Governments in the US, the UK and elsewhere are backing fusion; what are they doing and to what effect?
• What is the optimum role for the public sector in tech, ,finance, supply chain?
• What can or should the public sector do to attract private capital to fusion?
• To what extent should investors track government initiatives to fund fusion?

A live poll of all participants – speakers, panelists and audience – seeks to understand whether, and under what conditions, in what timeframe, and with what expectations the audience would invest in fusion?