Roadmap ⑩ · Available individually · €19 · web roadmap + A1 poster · Version 1.0 · As of 2026-08-19
Fusion Energy
From experiment to power plant: the scientific proof is in — now tritium, materials, supply chain and the power price decide
1 Executive summary (excerpt)
In December 2022 the National Ignition Facility produced more fusion energy than the lasers delivered into the target for the first time — 3.15 MJ from 2.05 MJ. That was the scientific proof seventy years of research had waited for, and it has been reproduced several times since, most recently with more than 8 MJ. The same facility draws around 300 MJ from the grid per shot and fires once a day. This roadmap sits exactly in that gap: between physical proof and a power plant there are no longer formulas but engineering problems — tritium, neutrons, magnet manufacturing, availability, permitting.
The awakening was triggered not by the laser but by a magnet: when Commonwealth Fusion Systems and MIT reached 20 tesla with high-temperature superconductors in 2021, the compact tokamak became computationally possible — fusion power grows with the fourth power of field strength. Since then more than $9 bn of private capital has flowed into over 50 companies, Microsoft and Google have signed power purchase agreements for electricity that does not yet exist, and ITER has shifted its schedule to first plasma in 2034 and deuterium-tritium operation in 2039. The next hard test is SPARC: if Q > 1 succeeds in a compact tokamak, everything moves forward; if it fails, the funding wave ends. Then come the uncomfortable questions — only about 20 kg of tritium exist worldwide, a plant must breed its own fuel, and wall materials today fail after weeks under fusion neutrons.
2 What you get
- Executive summary: what it is about, who it is relevant for, what the roadmap claims
- Roadmap panel: retrospective since 2020 and outlook today → 3 → 5 → 10 years in four layers — interactive, with rationale, dependency chains and confidence per entry
- ADL classification per reference industry (emerging · pacing · key · base)
- Maturity (TRL 1–9) per sub-technology with stated confidence and evidence
- Implications for action per horizon: watch · pilot · invest · ignore — with reasons
- Change journal and complete list of sources, methods used linked
- The A1 poster (594 × 841 mm, portrait) as vector PDF in English and German, plus PNG — with 50+ milestones in four layers, dependencies, key figures, TRL, ADL and action matrix
3 What a roadmap looks like
The freely accessible showcase roadmap Robotics & Humanoid Systems shows structure, depth and poster exactly as you get them here.
4 Questions about buying
- What exactly am I buying?
- Access to the web roadmap (permanent, tied to your e-mail address, sign-in by link without password) and the poster as PDF/PNG for download — as of the time of purchase (version and date are printed on page and poster). Later updates are not included.
- How does payment work?
- Via Stripe (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA direct debit and others). You receive a receipt or invoice by e-mail. Price €19; no VAT is charged (German small-business rule, Section 19 UStG).
- Right of withdrawal?
- Digital content: by purchasing you request immediate provision and acknowledge that your right of withdrawal thereby expires — this is stated explicitly once more before payment. Details in the terms of purchase.
- For teams?
- Access is personal. For sharing within a company contact us: info@operation-zukunft.de.