News | Headlines
New fusion record for WEST tokamak
France Fusion power
Scientists have set a new record for generating and sustaining ultrahot plasma, the essential component for nuclear fusion, at the WEST tokamak reactor in Cadarache, France, bringing the technology that much closer to the world-changing ambition of harnessing energy from hydrogen atom fusion.
On 12 February 12 the tokamak was able to maintain a hot plasma for 22 minutes and 17 seconds. During the test, the plasma reached a temperature of 50 million degC (90 million degF), which is around three times as hot as the Sun’s core.
The previous plasma duration record of 1066 seconds, or 17 minutes and 46 seconds, was achieved in January 2025 by China’s EAST Tokamak. That means WEST, operated by Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), has achieved a significant 25% improvement in plasma
duration time of 4 minutes and 29 seconds. The development is a major milestone because fusion generators like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), currently under construction in southern France, will depend on the ability to maintain plasmas for long periods of time. “This leap forward demonstrates how our knowledge of plasmas and technological control of them over longer periods is becoming more mature, and offers hope that fusion plasmas can be stabilised for greater amounts of time in machines such as ITER,” said the CEA in its official statement. To achieve fusion in the absence of the sun’s intense gravity to contain the reaction tokamaks have to generate temperatures much higher than those of the star’s core in their torus shaped plasma chambers. When operational, the ITER Tokamak will generate temperatures of 150 m degC, ten times the
temperature of the sun’s core, which requires a great deal of energy, a primary challenge in the use of tokamaks, if they are to produce more energy from fusion than has to be put in to create it. Hence the need to keep the plasma stable for long periods while ensuring that all plasma-facing components of the tokamak are able to withstand its radiation.
“WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by maintaining hydrogen plasma for more than twenty minutes through the injection of 2 MW of heating power,” said Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, director of Fundamental Research at the CEA. “Experiments will continue with increased power. This excellent result allows both WEST and the French community to lead the way for the future use of ITER.” The next steps for the CEA and WEST will be to double down on its plasma duration record by sustaining this ultra-hot gas for periods reaching a few hours.
Solar, battery storage to lead new US capacity USA Renewables
The US Energy Information Administration expects 63 GW of new utility-scale electric- generating capacity to be added to the USA’s power grid in 2025, according to its latest ‘Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory’ report. This represents an almost 30% increase from 2024 when 48.6 GW of capacity was installed, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002. Together, solar and battery storage account for 81% of the expected total capacity
20
additions, with solar making up over 50% of the increase.
In 2024, solar generators added a record 30 GW of utility scale solar to the grid, accounting for 61% of capacity additions in the year. EIA expects this trend to continue in 2025, with 32.5 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity to be added. Texas (11.6 GW) and California (2.9 GW) will account for almost half of it. EIA expects five other states (Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and New York) each to account for more than 1 GW of added solar
capacity in 2025 and collectively account for 7.8 GW of planned solar capacity additions. In 2025, capacity growth from battery storage could set a record with an expected 18.2 GW of utility-scale installations to be added to the grid. US battery storage achieved record growth in 2024 when power providers added 10.3 GW of new battery storage capacity. This growth highlights the importance of battery storage when used with renewable energy.
15 10 5 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec USA planned generation additions 2025 6 | March 2025 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
EIA expects 7.7 GW of wind capacity to be added to the US grid in 2025. Last year, only 5.1 GW was added, the smallest wind capacity addition since 2014. Texas, Wyoming, and Massachusetts will account for almost half of the additions. Two large offshore wind plants are expected to come online this year: the 800 MW Vinyard Wind 1 in Massachusetts and the 715 MW Revolution Wind in Rhode Island. Developers plan to build 4.4 GW of new natural gas-fired capacity in the USA during 2025: 50% will be simple-cycle combustion turbines and 36% combined-cycle power blocks. Utah, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Tennessee account for more than 70% of these planned natural gas additions. The two largest natural gas plants expected to come online in the year are the 840 MW Intermountain Power Project in Utah and the 678.7 MW Magnolia Power in Louisiana. The additions at the Intermountain project will replace 1800 MW of coal-fired capacity at the plant, which is scheduled to be retired in July this year.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47
