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Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

helionenergy.com

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Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#71

Post by ramraj07 »

schainks wrote: post #61
mola wrote: post #40

Sounds like Altman used his personal relationship with Microsoft CEO to do this meaningless PR stunt, so he can more easily pursaude stupid money to actually invest in this.

AIUI Helion’s bottleneck is the number of capacitors needed to run a sustained reaction at a given scale. The numbers don’t seem out of this world to me, and it’s probably smarter money than what we are throwing at ITER given time to market.

I mean I won’t put MY money in to Helion. From whatever I’ve read it’s not that simple for Helion to get their reactor to work and even if they did it likely won’t produce meaningful net power. But let’s see.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#72

Post by pfdietz »

rashkov wrote: post #38
femto113 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They definitely have valuable IP already: whatever slide deck/demo reel/kompromat they used to pull this nonsense off is clearly worth its weight in unobtanium.

this is needlessly cynical, no?

It is very needlessly cynical. Helion has a number of very clever ideas, integrated in a way that has impressed me over the years. I would not dismiss them out of hand.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#73

Post by aetherson »

next_xibalba wrote: post #59
thepasswordis wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell is this cynicism? Seems completely inappropriate. Helion isn’t vaporware.

While you’re probably right about GP’s cynical tone, this announcement does seem fairly meaningless. Does Helion have a working prototype that can be reasonably moved into production? Or is that still years away?

Helion in 2014: We're about 3 years away from break-even energy.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-VCDB-15246

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#74

Post by strictnein »

thepasswordis wrote: post #58

HN, what the heck has happened to you? What is with all of these cynical comments? Helion is an awesome company, their technology is real, and this is cool. >oh no this might not work! Do you guys not understand that you’re posting on the forum of a venture capital firm/startup accelerator?

Maybe I'm imagining it, but I feel like there's been a marked decrease in the quality of comments here over the past couple of months. Lots of snark and vitriol. Maybe it's just the layoffs and people are venting here for some reason?

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#75

Post by pfdietz »

stu2b50 wrote: post #57
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they could build a fusion system, are they in any danger of not having customers to the point that they're selling futures now?

It’s a sliding scale in the end. You can have a fusion system that barely breaks even, or only slightly breaks even, and then is still more expensive than traditional energy sources after factoring in fixed costs and maintenance.

For example, a DT fusion reactor based on ITER would be two orders of magnitude larger (in volume and mass) than a fission reactor of the same power output. It might "work" in some technical sense, but be completely economically impractical.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#76

Post by aww_dang »

gfodor wrote: post #6
trebligdivad wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it doesn't cost MS a bean until Helion have something working, but to Helion it means they can raise money for the actual construction of the first-production machine with the investors knowing someone will pay them for it if it works.

You're making the mistake of thinking the person you were replying to was actually wondering why they would do this - and not just jumping to their own cynical conclusions (which they did before "asking" their question) and cathartically posting them here.

Is engaging with good faith a mistake? It seems less perilous than mind-reading. I found the reply informative.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#77

Post by thepasswordis »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #65
thepasswordis wrote: post #58

HN, what the heck has happened to you? What is with all of these cynical comments? Helion is an awesome company, their technology is real, and this is cool. >oh no this might not work! Do you guys not understand that you’re posting on the forum of a venture capital firm/startup accelerator?

Decades of tons of things turning out to be a pile of lies and fraud.

Is that true? Seems like this summer I’m driving my Tesla to watch a Starship launch and using my starlink for internet access along the way.

Meanwhile I’m using GitHub copilot to help me write code to uses some of openAIs products in my existing SaaS offering.

There is a constant stream of waymos driving past my house (with nobody in them) and I’m playing Skyrim in VR.

What technology are you talking about that didn’t pan out?

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#78

Post by Gud »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #69
deweller wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 years ago, HN was a place full of optimism and excitement. I've noticed a marked increase in cynicism in this place. Like most of the world, it suffers from extreme tribalism and group think. I miss the former positive HN. And the positive world. sigh

> And the positive world. sigh It turned out to be a lie and a scam, so now people are more skeptical.

No it didn’t. The world is an amazing place. I am thankful to be alive.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#79

Post by ricardobeat »

thepasswordis wrote: post #58

HN, what the heck has happened to you? What is with all of these cynical comments? Helion is an awesome company, their technology is real, and this is cool. >oh no this might not work! Do you guys not understand that you’re posting on the forum of a venture capital firm/startup accelerator?

Cynism is not disencouraged in the HN guidelines, but the sneering at the community and meta complaint in your comment is. I don’t care for the tone in those comments buy they are expressing something real.

Helion can be a cool company with real tech, and this deal a marketing play, both possibly true.

Re: Helion’s fusion power purchase agreement with Microsoft

#80

Post by DennisP »

next_xibalba wrote: post #59
thepasswordis wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell is this cynicism? Seems completely inappropriate. Helion isn’t vaporware.

While you’re probably right about GP’s cynical tone, this announcement does seem fairly meaningless. Does Helion have a working prototype that can be reasonably moved into production? Or is that still years away?

Their sixth reactor achieved 100M degree temps, ran for 16 months under vacuum, did thousands of fusion shots, and demonstrated D-He3 fusion.

Their seventh will start up in 2024, and is supposed to demonstrate net electricity from D-He3.

Their eighth is supposed to be the commercial reactor. If they don't achieve that, they will have to pay penalties to Microsoft.

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