Fusion startup Realta Fusion this week announced a deal with Madison Gas and Electric that will place one of the first grid-connected fusion power plants in the country in Wisconsin. The partnership comes as utilities around the world have been jockeying to court fusion startups, a courtship that says as much about utilities’ anxiety over future power supply as it does about fusion’s progress.
For founders and investors watching the sector, these tie-ups serve as a kind of real-world credibility check. A deal with a utility offers several advantages for a fusion startup, ranging from engineering support and permitting assistance to site selection for grid interconnection and land leases. For utilities, such deals give them early access to a technology with the potential to reshape the grid for decades to come.
To date, only a handful of fusion startups have announced deals with utilities, which makes agreements like this one so newsworthy.
Realta’s deal with Madison Gas and Electric will explore the construction of a 200-megawatt power plant — roughly enough capacity to power a small city — sometime in the mid-2030s. The utility also made an equity investment as part of the deal, though Realta did not reveal specifics and did not immediately reply to TechCrunch’s request for more information. The startup is currently converting an old Oscar Mayer factory in Madison to serve as its research and development facility.
