Proxima FusionIn Development
Proxima's net-energy stellarator demonstrator, to be built at Garching near Munich next to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. Alpha is intended to be the first stellarator to achieve net energy gain (Q>1) and to prove out the manufacturing methods, materials and systems a commercial Stellaris plant would need.
Latest update Sep 16, 2026
01
Pre-construction. A February 2026 MoU with RWE, the Free State of Bavaria and Max Planck IPP set the financing and siting framework, and the Alpha Alliance of more than 50 European industrial companies was assembled to deliver the hardware. The July 2026 round funds the Stellarator Model Coil, the full-scale magnet demonstration due in late 2027 that gates Alpha's construction. The September 9 Lower Saxony HTS-tape MoU is meant to supply about 20,000 km of tape for Alpha; no plant site has been named.
02
03
Announced next steps from Proxima Fusion that mention Alpha.
2026-2028
Turn the February 2026 memorandum of understanding with RWE, the Free State of Bavaria and Max Planck IPP into firm agreements: roughly 20% private financing, roughly 20% Bavarian co-financing against the up-to-€400M High-Tech Agenda, federal funding, and the permitting needed to build at Garching. The July 2026 €411M round met Bavaria's private-match condition, unlocking its €400M pledge; a further ~€1.2B in German federal funding for Alpha remains uncommitted. The Garching plot is still unchosen. STRIDE is a separate, smaller, three-hub research channel (initial €125M for all three hubs equally), not Alpha construction money.
Late 2027
Finish the Stellarator Model Coil, a full-scale high-temperature superconducting magnet demonstration that is the main hardware gate before Alpha construction. It is meant to de-risk HTS magnets for stellarator geometry, where coils are non-planar and far harder to manufacture than a tokamak's. Nuclear Engineering International reported on September 15, 2026 that completion is targeted for late 2027. Faraday Factory Japan remains contracted to supply HTS tape for the coil.
2031
Build and commission the ~€2B Alpha demonstrator at Garching and operate it from 2031, aiming to make it the first stellarator ever to produce more fusion energy than it consumes and to generate the data that sets the Stellaris engineering design.
04
On Oct. 28, 2026, during the German chancellor's visit to Tokyo, Proxima Fusion signed a memorandum with Fujikura to assess a high-temperature superconducting tape supply in Lower Saxony and a memorandum with Kyoto Fusioneering to expand work on gyrotrons and the fuel cycle. Proxima says it expects about 20,000 kilometers of tape for its Alpha demonstrator and about 40,000 kilometers for each Stellaris plant. The notes describe feasibility work and continued cooperation, not a factory decision or a purchase order.
05
06
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Compact, high-field tokamak designed to demonstrate net energy from fusion. It uses high-temperature superconducting magnets to achieve reactor-class magnetic fields in a much smaller machine, with peer-reviewed projections of roughly Q ~11 and ~140 MW of fusion power.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
CFS' first planned grid-scale commercial fusion power plant, designed to deliver about 400 MW of clean electricity using the HTS magnet and tokamak stack proven through SPARC. The project is officially named the Fall Line Fusion Power Station and is planned for a 100-acre site at the James River Industrial Center in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Helion Energy
7th-generation fusion prototype designed to demonstrate electricity production from fusion using Helion's pulsed magneto-inertial architecture and direct electricity recapture.
Helion Energy
First commercial fusion power plant, designed to generate 50+ MWe. Located in Malaga, Chelan County, Washington, on land leased from Chelan County PUD near Rock Island Dam. Power will be marketed by Constellation Energy to Microsoft data centers.
