AIM President & CEO Brooke Thomson presents the AIM Excellence in Manufacturing Award to Commonwealth Fusion Systems, represented by Julian Soell, COO; Colleen Rankin, Production Manager; and Ken Voisine, Production Director.

By Brooke Thomson
President & CEO

Commonwealth Fusion Systems says its objective is nothing less than delivering an urgent transition to fusion energy.

The Devens-based fusion-energy company is well on its way to that objective as it powers up one of the most technologically sophisticated machines on earth.

Fusion energy holds the potential to revolutionize the U.S. energy landscape by providing a near-limitless, zero-carbon, 24/7 baseload power source. It eliminates reliance on fossil fuels while powering growing electrification needs, such as AI data centers.

CFS was spun out of MIT in 2018, combining decades of fusion research with the private sector’s speed and agility. Eight years and almost $3 billion worth of investment later (CFS may be the best-funded startup company that Massachusetts has ever seen), the company is on track to build commercial fusion power plants while working with policymakers and suppliers to make fusion energy available globally.

And now, CFS is the recipient of AIM’s Excellence in Manufacturing Award for May. I was pleased to present the award during a visit to CFS’ Devens headquarters on May 28.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is testament to the potential for clean-technology companies to drive the Massachusetts economy and address our pressing energy and environmental needs. AIM is pleased to honor a company showing us what Massachusetts can become.

The art and science of manufacturing built the Massachusetts economy, from Charles Goodyear producing the first vulcanized tire in Woburn in 1813 to bioscience companies like Takeda producing state-of-the-art medicines in the Commonwealth today. And though manufacturing companies employ about half the number of people they did three decades ago, the sector remains a critical conduit for economic opportunity and advancement.

It’s one of the reasons that AIM devotes much of its public-policy efforts to supporting manufacturers in areas such as taxation, sustainability, energy and regulation.

Approximately 230,000 people work at manufacturing companies here, 7 percent of the Commonwealth’s total non-farm payroll. Manufacturing is expected to contribute $64 billion in economic output this year – 9.6 percent of the Massachusetts gross state product.

CFS’ key innovation is high-temperature superconductors that can drive powerful magnets and create fusion.  The company is constructing its SPARC fusion device on its 47-acre campus in Devens, aimed at demonstrating the world’s first net energy, commercially relevant fusion machine. SPARC is expected to produce its first plasma next year.

The facility also includes a high-temperature superconducting magnet manufacturing hub.

The goal is to produce more energy from the reaction than is needed to fuel the process. By the early 2030s, the company seeks to bring about 400 megawatts of fusion energy to the grid through its first power plant in Virginia, enough to power about 150,000 homes. CFS already has power-purchase agreements with Google and Eni in hand for that energy.

“We are closer than most people know,” Kristen Cullen, the company’s vice president of global policy and public affairs, recently told The Boston Globe.

CFS employs more than 1,000 people nationwide. Fusion, the process that powers the sun, occurs when light atoms like hydrogen combine to form heavier atoms like helium. That releases tremendous amounts of energy. Fusion is hard to reproduce on Earth, but CFS is using a magnetic confinement approach in a machine called a tokamak that is scientifically well understood and has been proven for decades to be able to produce fusion.

Fusion plants produce electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. Unlike fission reactors, which create power by splitting atoms, fusion forces atoms together, releasing tremendous amounts of energy that could be captured as heat and converted into electricity. And unlike wind and solar, they can run around the clock, making them a more reliable source of power.

CFS is also being honored because it understands that its breathtaking innovation does not exist in a vacuum.

The company partners extensively with local schools and educational institutions to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. It works with local partners to engage students and sends employees to speak directly at schools.

The company also maintains deep, ongoing educational and research partnerships with universities, most notably its foundational spin-out connection with the MIT.

So, while the history of manufacturing is inspiring, the future of the industry looks even brighter.