Partner Spotlight: Proxima Fusion on stellarators and the long road to fusion power

As Munich Climate Week prepares for its very first edition, we continue our partner spotlight series with the organisations making it possible. This time, we talk to Proxima Fusion, the Munich-based fusion energy company, about why it chose to support Munich Climate Week and what it takes to bring fusion power to the grid.

For Proxima Fusion, that means building stellarators with the goal of delivering reliable, low-carbon power. As the company puts it:

“We believe a future clean energy system will need a mix of complementary technologies, with fusion contributing reliable, low-carbon power around the clock.”

In the interview, Proxima Fusion explains why Munich is its home, why fusion will come too late for 2045 targets, how it could complement renewables in the long term, and what still has to be proven before fusion reaches the grid.

What made Proxima Fusion want to be part of the very first Munich Climate Week as a sponsor?

Munich is our home, and it brings together scientific research, engineering talent and industrial expertise that are essential to building a new energy industry. Munich Climate Week offers an opportunity to connect those communities around a practical question: how do we build the technologies needed to meet growing demand for clean, reliable energy?

Alongside our sponsorship, we are opening our office on the 22nd for an evening to discuss the engineering behind future energy systems. We want to share what we are building with the engineering community, learn from other industries and connect with people whose experience can help bring fusion to the grid.

What is Proxima Fusion building, and what role do you see it playing in a future energy system?

Our mission is to build stellarators to power the future. These fusion machines use precisely shaped magnetic fields to hold extremely hot fuel in place so that atomic nuclei can fuse and release energy. We are developing power plants designed to turn that energy into reliable, low-carbon electricity in continuous operation. Our work builds on decades of research at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, combined with advances in computational design and superconducting magnets.
Reducing emissions is an important part of that ambition. So are energy security and meeting growing electricity demand. By turning Europe’s scientific expertise into power plants, manufacturing capabilities and supply chains, we also want to build an industry that supports long-term prosperity.

How would the realization of commercially viable fusion energy change the trajectory of the energy transition and our ability to address the effects of climate change?

Fusion will come too late to deliver the emissions reductions we need by 2045. We need to accelerate the deployment of solutions available today, especially solar and wind, alongside storage and stronger electricity grids. We believe a future clean energy system will need a mix of complementary technologies, with fusion contributing reliable, low-carbon power around the clock.
Over the longer term, commercially viable fusion could help sustain a low-carbon energy system as electricity demand grows and more industry, transport and heating move away from fossil fuels. Its value would be in providing large amounts of electricity regardless of the weather, alongside renewables. Delivering that contribution means proving that fusion power plants can operate reliably, compete on cost and be built at scale. That is the work we are pursuing today.

Why is it important for frontier science, research, and engineering to be a part of the fight against climate change?

Fusion shows how advances in research can open new possibilities for energy systems.
Decades of stellarator research, together with progress in computation and superconducting magnets, have created the foundations we are building on today.
Turning those foundations into a power plant requires engineering across many disciplines. Complex magnets must be built to precise specifications, materials tested under demanding conditions, and cooling, maintenance and other systems integrated into a machine that can operate reliably. Research and engineering need to advance together, with what we learn from building and testing improving the next design. That is how scientific progress becomes useful energy infrastructure.

What's still ahead for Proxima Fusion on this path, and who would you like to see join you as a collaborator to raise ambition and drive implementation?

Our next major milestone is completing and testing the Stellarator Model Coil, our
demonstration magnet, targeted for 2027. It will validate key technologies and manufacturing methods needed for Alpha, our demonstration stellarator. Alpha’s target is to demonstrate net fusion energy gain in the early 2030s: producing more energy through fusion than is supplied to heat its plasma. The capabilities we develop and test through Alpha will carry forward into Stellaris, our first commercial power plant, with the ambition of supplying first electricity to the grid in the late 2030s. Alongside these machines, we are building the manufacturing processes and European supply chains needed to deliver them. We welcome collaboration with research institutions, manufacturers, suppliers and energy companies. We also want engineers, technicians and specialists from automotive, aerospace, defence, energy and other demanding industries to see a place for themselves in fusion.
Experience in building, testing, sourcing and industrialising complex hardware is directly relevant to the work ahead.

As Munich Climate Week approaches, we are grateful to have Proxima Fusion alongside us. Join their technical evening on Thursday, October 22, for talks, food and open conversation with the teams working on fusion engineering. Explore the wider programme from October 19 to 25 at munichclimateweek.com.