(103a) The Role of Fusion in Highly Decarbonized Electricity Systems

The urgent need to mitigate climate change requires drastic reduction in greenhouse emissions across the global economy. Emissions from the energy sector accounted for just under three-fourths of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2016¹, and this sector has thus been a major, early focus in reaching net-zero emissions goals. Because of the widespread availability of solar and wind resources globally and the dramatic decrease in costs of solar and wind conversion technologies over the past two decades, the electricity sector has been a major focus of decarbonization in the energy sector. These variable renewable energy (VRE) resources have grown rapidly to account for as much as 30% of generation capacity in California². Because supply and demand must always be matched in the electricity sector, solar and wind must be complemented with storage technologies in order to get to high degrees of decarbonization. However, at emissions limits of 5-10 g-CO2/kWh and below in the electricity system, VRE/storage options become very costly; and low-carbon, firm power options become important complements.

This presentation looks at the role fusion power plants could play in highly decarbonized electricity systems, given their zero-carbon, firm power attributes. Fusion power technologies are still under development, and there are not yet any commercial fusion power plants. Hence, we explore the potential role of fusion by investigating its integration into the electricity system in 2050 and beyond for a range of future fusion power plant costs. We look at fusion's value for different regions around the world as well as within the U.S. and conclude that fusion can play a major role both in the U.S. and globally. We also look at factors that the cost of fusion will be sensitive to in 2050 and beyond.

-----------------

1. OurWorldinData.org. Sector by sector: where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from? - Our World in Data.

2. Data Show Clean Power Increasing, Fossil Fuel Decreasing in California. https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2023-08/data-show-clean-power-increasing-fossil-fuel-decreasing-california#:~:text=The%20latest%20data%20show%20that%20in%202021%20more,an%20increase%20of%202.7%20percent%20compared%20to%202020.

Fusion