AAA Cenovus warms with fusion deal

Cenovus warms with fusion deal

US-based oil producer Cenovus Energy has joined the $19.5m series B round for General Fusion, a clean-tech power company to turn hydrogen into helium.

Alongside Cenovus’ Environmental Opportunity Fund’s $3.8m investment in the round were Bezos Expeditions, the family office of Jeff Bezos, founder and head of online retailer Amazon, and venture capital firms Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, GrowthWorks, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), and SET Venture Partners.

Judy Fairburn, executive vice-president of environment and strategic planning at Cenovus Energy, said: “General Fusion is a great fit for our Environmental Opportunity Fund, which finances environmental innovations in energy and technology. This technology has the potential to revolutionize energy production.”

This funding round follows General Fusion achieving the first milestone in its Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) project, undertaken in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory, using magnetized target fusion (pictured) to build a power plant.

Fusion is the process that powers the sun. On earth, hydrogen isotopes are heated to extremely high temperatures allowing them to collide and fuse to form helium, releasing energy that can be harnessed to produce electricity.

The $13.75m A round closed in August 2009 after plane maker Boeing completed an evaluation of the mechanical system’s technical feasibility the year before.

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