German government plans to fund fusion research with over two billion euros

Like something out of a scrap press: this is what the torus of the Wendelstein 7-X “stellarator,” completed in 2014, looks like. In this device, plasma is held in suspension by magnetic fields. The squashed shape is the result of sophisticated calculations designed to create a particularly stable and heat-insulating magnetic cage.

Beautifully symmetrical: The competing “Tokamak” principle has a simpler design. However, a major disadvantage compared to the “Stellarator” is the instability of the plasma, which only allows for pulsed operation. The photo shows the ASDEX Upgrade, which has been operated by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching since 1991.

Photos (2): IPP

German government plans to fund fusion research with over two billion euros

On October 1, the German government adopted an “action plan” to provide greater support for fusion research than before. Under the title “Germany on the way to a fusion power plant” (PDF), it announced that it would provide a total of more than two billion euros for this purpose by 2028. In doing so, it wants to push ahead with the commissioning of the “world's first fusion reactor in Germany”, as was somewhat prematurely declared a goal of the government in the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD, which must step down again by the beginning of 2029 at the latest (250403). In any case, the realization of nuclear fusion that can be used for power generation is not expected worldwide before the middle of the century, as the German Academy of Engineering Sciences has stated (241206). For this reason alone, nuclear fusion will not be able to contribute to the achievement of the climate targets set for that time (PDF).

From the outset, the “world's first fusion reactor in Germany” was primarily a political compromise

From the outset, this point in the coalition agreement was less a realistic goal than a political compromise: it allowed the Union parties to save face by committing to relatively “clean” electricity generation via nuclear fusion, which is still a long way from becoming a reality, and thus to stick to the “nuclear energy option” in a striking manner (250801). In return, the Union parties had to back down from their previous demands for an extension or even a revival of conventional nuclear energy. Otherwise, the SPD would not have been prepared to form a coalition government. The coalition agreement therefore makes no mention of nuclear power plants based on nuclear fission, all of which have now been decommissioned.

Level of funding to date increases approximately threefold

The electricity generation from nuclear fusion heat provided for in the coalition agreement will therefore not be available for at least the next two decades. Even after the end of the current government, it will take at least three to four legislative periods before fusion power plants become technically feasible and could gain practical significance. This puts pressure on the CDU/CSU and SPD to at least give the impression that things could move faster by increasing funding for relevant research. The more than two billion euros that they now want to make available over the four-year legislative period corresponds to over 500 million euros per year and more than three times the previous funding, which was last estimated by the Federal Ministry of Research at approximately 150 million euros.

After all, it is by no means the case that research into nuclear fusion has been criminally neglected up to now. The “action plan” now adopted by the black-red federal government even ties in directly with a very similar project presented by the SPD, Green Party, and FDP coalition government in March 2024 under the title “Fusion 2040 Funding Program – Research on the Way to a Fusion Power Plant” (PDF). The only thing that has changed is the amount of money that the fusion industry lobby can expect to receive in the future.

The main beneficiaries are four companies, each of which wants to bring about nuclear fusion in different ways

The beneficiaries of the increased cash flow are four companies or lobby groups, each of which is trying to tackle the still unresolved technical problems of nuclear fusion in different ways. Despite decades of effort and a whole host of experimental facilities worldwide, there is still not a single research reactor that can consistently generate more energy than it consumes. These four companies were all established between 2019 and 2023 and are listed in the Bundestag's lobby register. They are not only active in Germany, but also cooperate internationally, primarily with partners in the US. At the same time, however, they have little equity capital and virtually no income from ongoing business, which is why they are as dependent on subsidies from the state, their shareholders, or other patrons as fish are on water.

This company was founded in June 2022 by private industrial companies from Germany, France, Italy, and Spain and collaborates with leading research institutions. These include CERN, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), ENEA, and Eindhoven University of Technology. The company name was apparently derived from the older unit of measurement for magnetic flux density, which has since been replaced by “Tesla.” The incorrect spelling ‘Gauss’ instead of “Gauß” is not due to the new spelling rules, but was probably chosen out of consideration for the international partners. According to the commercial register, the company has equity capital of €2 million, which is far more than its three competitors. On October 9, Gauss Fusion GmbH presented a cost and time schedule for a first commercial fusion power plant called GIGA, estimating the cost of this project at €15 to €18 billion.

This company was also initiated by employees of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and entered in the commercial register in Munich in March 2023. Unlike Gauss Fusion GmbH, however, it does not intend to further develop the “Tokamak,” but wants to develop a functional fusion reactor based on the “Stellarator.” It has since increased its share capital from an initial €20,000 to €63,218. As it announced on October 9, it has also raised a total of €200 million for the development of a commercial fusion power plant by 2030, which will use “QI-HTS stellarators” to provide sufficient heat for power generation. A team of scientists and engineers from leading companies and institutions such as the IPP, MIT, Harvard, SpaceX, Tesla, and McLaren is working on this goal and has now grown to around 100 employees.

This company was founded in July 2019 and is also based in Munich. It takes a unique approach by using boron protons instead of deuterium-tritium as fuel, with fusion being initiated by high-intensity lasers. It is a consortium of scientists from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who want to work together to realize this fusion concept. Marvel Fusion GmbH can draw on over €385 million in funding from public and private investors. A cooperation agreement between the company and Ludwig Maximilian University is supported by the state of Bavaria with €2.5 million. According to the commercial register, the company's equity capital amounts to €132,780.

Focused Energy GmbH was entered in the commercial register in Darmstadt in August 2021. To date, only €25,000 has been reported as equity capital. The company's second headquarters is in Redwood City, California. It is a technology spin-off from the University of Darmstadt that cooperates with the US company National Energetics (Texas). Like Marvel Fusion, Focused Energy pursues the concept of laser-controlled fusion, but uses the more conventional deuterium-tritium approach of the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The company received financial support from, among others, the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, which awarded it the SPRIN-D prize worth $50 million. According to its latest self-description, “the world's leading laser fusion company employs around 100 of the best minds from relevant research institutes and universities in Europe and the US.”

Proxima, Marvel, and Focused Energy demanded “at least €3 billion by 2029”

A week before the announced cabinet decision on the “action plan” to promote nuclear fusion, three of these four companies—Proxima, Marvel, and Focused Energy—published an appeal to the federal government demanding “state start-up financing of at least €3 billion by 2029” for their business. Only in this way could they “mobilize private capital on a large scale and pave the way for the first fusion power plant in Germany.”

Gauss Fusion GmbH estimated the cost of its project at €15 to €18 billion

Gauss Fusion GmbH did not participate in this appeal. Instead, a week after the cabinet decision, it presented its draft for the development of a fusion power plant, which it said could be realized by the mid-2040s and would cost €15 to €18 billion. This sum would indeed be GIGA, as the promising name of the project is to be called. And since the price level of 2025 was used as a basis, it is likely to increase significantly by the mid-2040s due to inflation.

The output of the planned GIGA fusion power plant was not specified. However, it is likely to be in the usual range of conventional nuclear power plants, which cost significantly less. Even the financially derailed Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland was 4 to 7 billion euros cheaper, despite costing almost three times as much as originally planned.

The first fusion power plant would be overwhelmingly uneconomical
Even without cost overruns, conventional nuclear power plants are already far too expensive to compete with electricity from renewable energies. France's EDF, for example, has revised the construction costs for further EPR-type nuclear power plants upward to at least €8.4 billion after the originally estimated €3.4 billion for the first domestic EPR in Flamanville exploded to over €19 billion. Since the construction costs for the GIGA fusion power plant are estimated to be twice as high, this would result in overwhelming unprofitability for power plants powered by heat from nuclear fusion.

October 2025

251002

ENERGY CHRONICLE

German government plans to fund fusion research with over two billion euros

From the outset, the “world's first fusion reactor in Germany” was primarily a political compromise

Level of funding to date increases approximately threefold

The main beneficiaries are four companies, each of which wants to bring about nuclear fusion in different ways

Proxima, Marvel, and Focused Energy demanded “at least €3 billion by 2029”

Gauss Fusion GmbH estimated the cost of its project at €15 to €18 billion

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