This month, we look at the future of energy that has attracted the biggest names and cheques in private capital, and how other countries in Asia are looking at bridging the rare earth elements gap.
The power of the sun
Key developments in recent weeks shine the spotlight on what is being touted as an energy revolution in the fight against carbon emissions and rising global temperatures.
According to the International Energy Agency, nuclear investment globally is making a comeback, rising by 50% over the past five years to 2024. In its World Energy Investment report published this month, the IEA estimates that spending on nuclear plants and refurbishments is set to exceed $70 billion, “with the promise of further growth given the burgeoning interest in new technologies such as small modular reactors.”
Nuclear power generated 9% of the world’s electricity in 2023, and there were 64 reactors being built in 15 countries, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Already, major states and corporations have signalled more support. Through COP 28 and COP 29, a combined 31 countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050. They include the US, UK, Japan, France, Sweden, Poland, Ghana, Kazakhstan, and El Salvador.
Commercially, Microsoft and Meta have inked 20-year deals with Constellation Energy Corporation to run their AI data centres on nuclear power. Most recently, Talen Energy expanded its agreement with Amazon to supply its data centres with nuclear energy through to 2042.
And in a boost to new capacity, particularly in emerging markets, the World Bank is said to be lifting the ban it had, since 2013, on funding such projects. Still, there is only one project on its books: The Senn Nuclear Power Project on the banks of the River Gargliano in southern Italy, the country’s first, for which it provided nearly two-thirds of the cost of construction, with a loan equivalent to $40 million, in September 1959.
However, the bulk of these developments are focused on nuclear fission plants, which are still beset by a number of challenges. While it has been used to generate electricity since the 1950s, a nuclear fission reactor is still considerably costly to construct and unstable, exposed to the risks of serious malfunctions, particularly in extreme weather. (E.g. Fukushima)
Waste from the plants could remain radioactive, even if at a low level, for 100,000 years or more. And, critics also point out the industry is largely dependent on government funding, not least because of how having a nuclear energy reactor technically means one has the capability to make nuclear weapons.
Now, research and development, backed by serious investment, is underway to develop nuclear fusion as a way to generate perpetual, carbon-free energy.
As International Atomic Energy Agency scientists have explained, nuclear fusion could generate unlimited clean energy at a rate of four times more power per kilogramme of fuel than today’s nuclear reactors, far more safely, and from resources that are apparently plentiful and accessible – deuterium from seawater, and tritium from lithium.
There are already noteworthy developments in the area.
