New energy demands require urgent capital investment

The world is entering a new era of energy demand, driven by economic expansion, electrification, and rapid advances in technology such as AI. Meeting this demand will require substantial capital investment to back breakthrough solutions that can deliver clean, reliable, and scalable power for generations to come.

This was the major theme of conversations earlier this month at ENACT Majlis, which convened government and private sector leaders behind the scenes of ADIPEC. Leaders across sectors agreed that meeting these needs will require visionary navigation and bold action.

Fusion energy, the ultimate energy source, stands at the forefront of this opportunity, and the UAE is uniquely positioned to lead its commercial development.

Fusion is the power of the stars. As an energy source, it is inherently safe, abundant, and carbon-free. It is fundamentally different from nuclear fission as it has no risk of a runaway reaction or meltdown and doesn’t have the burden of long-lived radioactive waste.

At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, we call fusion energy, “a star in a jar.”

Building on the MIT roots of our co-founders, our team of scientists and engineers are unlocking this power here on Earth, changing energy from something we have to find and consume into a technology we can build. It is a transformative leap forward into a new era: a scalable, dispatchable, and zero-emission solution that can help achieve deep decarbonisation across all sectors.

Fusion’s ability to provide both heat and electricity supports industrial processes and desalination, aligning seamlessly with the UAE’s strategy and ambitions for energy and industrial leadership. And with CFS on a path to deliver electricity to the grid in the early 2030s, fusion is directly relevant to the energy challenges facing the world right now.

Fusion sits on both sides of another disruptive technology that the UAE is driving forward, artificial intelligence.

At CFS, we are harnessing AI to accelerate and enhance our technology approach through world class partnerships with Google DeepMind and others. Technology companies also understand the relevance of CFS’s approach to address rising energy demand, which is why Google was our first signed customer for electricity from our first power plant.

CFS’ tokamak fusion systems mean fusion is feasible for industrial development. Our first demonstration, SPARC, which is being built at our campus in Massachusetts, will mark the start of the commercial fusion era when we turn it on and successfully cross critical technological thresholds in the next two years. That will then pave the way for ARC, the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant that will be built in Virginia, a state leading in data center development.

The UAE’s track record in executing world-class projects puts it in a prime position to champion new technologies, such as fusion. By leading the way in investing, accelerating, and deploying advanced energy projects, the UAE provides not just a blueprint for deployment, but also benefits from lessons learned and economies of scale.

The nation’s ability to attract global companies and talent also creates opportunities for knowledge transfer and capacity building, offering pathways for neighbouring countries to participate in — and benefit from — the fusion energy ecosystem.

But the urgency for capital investment in fusion cannot be overstated. CFS is attracting capital from investors of all types, but governments and sovereign wealth funds are especially well-suited for this role, given their long-term strategic outlook and proven record of investing in transformative technologies and public–private partnerships.

As in the past, the stars could once again provide navigation to a future that brims with vast potential. Arab navigators used a “star compass” based on the rising and setting points of specific star groups to maintain their direction before the widespread use of the magnetic compass. In the context of the UAE’s history, there are few nations with the potential this country has to set the path for how we will generate energy for our future.