Experts on hunt for 'holy grail of energy' - in Rotherham
- 8 months ago
Matt Stephenson is leading efforts to turn the “holy grail of energy” into a practical reality – from a site in Rotherham where Orgreave Colliery once sat. Chris Burn went to meet him.
Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Park now sits on what was once part of the Orgreave Colliery; now the former coal-mining area is home to a crucible for extremely ambitious plans to create a very different type of energy to meet the nation’s needs.
ergy Authority has been operating from a £22m facility on the park designed to facilitate the long-hoped for birth of a feasible fusion technology industry for the country.
The site’s work complements UKAEA’s existing main base in Oxfordshire and is ideally located for plans to open a £20bn fusion powerplant by around 2040 in nearby West Burton, North Nottinghamshire at a location that is a former coal-fired power station itself.
It is hoped the plant will demonstrate how fusion energy can produce eco-friendly electricity in a process where two forms of hydrogen are heated together at 150 million degrees centigrade – 10 times hotter than the sun – to create helium and release large amounts of energy. But significant technical challenges currently remain in turning that energy into electricity at a commercially-viable level.
Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Park now sits on what was once part of the Orgreave Colliery; now the former coal-mining area is home to a crucible for extremely ambitious plans to create a very different type of energy to meet the nation’s needs.
ergy Authority has been operating from a £22m facility on the park designed to facilitate the long-hoped for birth of a feasible fusion technology industry for the country.
The site’s work complements UKAEA’s existing main base in Oxfordshire and is ideally located for plans to open a £20bn fusion powerplant by around 2040 in nearby West Burton, North Nottinghamshire at a location that is a former coal-fired power station itself.
It is hoped the plant will demonstrate how fusion energy can produce eco-friendly electricity in a process where two forms of hydrogen are heated together at 150 million degrees centigrade – 10 times hotter than the sun – to create helium and release large amounts of energy. But significant technical challenges currently remain in turning that energy into electricity at a commercially-viable level.