Energy policy expert trip to the South of France

Source: Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy , 04 November 2022

Bavaria's State Secretary for Economic Affairs Roland Weigert visited the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) international fusion research facility under construction northeast of Marseille during his two-day energy policy expert trip to southern France.

35 nations, including Germany, the United States, Japan and China, are involved in the construction of the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor. The long-term goal of fusion research is to generate almost unlimited and sustainable energy from the fusion of nuclear nuclei, following the example of the sun.

Weigert: "The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the global energy crisis it triggered have impressively shown us how vulnerable we are as a leading industrial nation when it comes to security of energy supply. It is right to now systematically press ahead with the expansion of renewable energies and the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy in order to make us less dependent on energy imports in the short and medium term. At the same time, however, we must look even further ahead. The global transformation toward climate neutrality will significantly increase our hunger for energy from sustainable sources in the future. So we need a reliable complement to renewable energies. Nuclear fusion could be the revolutionary key technology that enables us in the future to have a virtually inexhaustible, climate-neutral, secure and, above all, base-load capable energy supply on demand. That's why we must continue to invest heavily in the research and development of fusion technologies."

Significant technological and scientific progress has been made in the field of fusion research just recently, Weigert said: "The latest technological developments in superconducting magnets and powerful lasers could have the potential to help nuclear fusion achieve a breakthrough sooner than previously thought. There are scenarios that predict commercial use of fusion energy as early as the first half of this century. So it fits the picture that by 2021, more than four billion euros of private venture capital had also flowed into research worldwide, and more and more startups related to nuclear fusion were being founded."

Read the full press release here.