By Dominick Bindl, Vice President of Technical Development, Realta Fusion
Everyone thought the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was crazy. It was 1858 and energy was a solved problem. Mountains of coal powered the industrial revolution and lamps lit by clean-burning whale oil unlocked evening hours for productivity and recreation. Nonetheless, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company had a vision for the potential of “rock oil” and began drilling exploratory wells in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Titusville became the home of the first of many oil booms and signaled the dawning of a new, energy-abundant era that would pull countless millions out of poverty and usher in a modern quality of life.
We are on the precipice of another Titusville moment. Humanity has never been closer to commercializing fusion energy machines—machines that recreate the power source of our sun and the stars. Fusion energy is the ultimate energy source: safe, abundant, zero-carbon. The promise of fusion energy has motivated decades of publicly funded research, and that research is finally paying off. Private capital is pouring into private companies, which have sprung up with the sole intent of making fusion energy real. A geopolitical race is underway. The fusion energy transformation is here, and Realta Fusion is at the forefront of that transformation.
Realta spun out of the University of Wisconsin in 2022 with a singular vision: Make fusion energy available to humanity by commercializing compact, scalable, and modular (CoSMo™) fusion systems. These systems have the potential to provide humanity with a safe, clean, zero-carbon, and always-on source of energy with zero fuel supply constraints and zero dependence upon the weather.
We are working to deliver this vision, and this vision is gaining momentum. Realta recently closed a $36 million Series A funding round. Future Ventures led this funding round with participation from both existing investors (WARF and Khosla Ventures) and new investors (Titletown Tech, Bascom Ventures, and others). This is a major milestone that reflects growing confidence in Realta’s approach and in Wisconsin’s role in shaping the clean energy future.
Realta is a Wisconsin story. We are drawing together established public-sector researchers, forward-thinking investors, and world-leading manufacturers based right here in the Great Lakes region. We are tapping into a rare ecosystem where scientific brilliance, manufacturing expertise, and mission-driven audacity intersect. Our collective success could pull the next countless millions out of poverty, drive a new wave of improvements to quality of life, and provide a powerful tool in the fight against climate change.
The last 150 years of energy have been about grabbing up land, sticking pipes into the ground, and pumping out the energy-dense hydrocarbons buried far below. Pipes of cash flowed in the opposite direction, flooding to the countries fortunate enough to contain these reservoirs within their borders.
The next 150 years could be about a different sort of reservoir. Fusion energy is not about fuel—fusion energy machines will be built with a 30-year fuel supply on site. Fusion energy will tap into reservoirs of know-how and manufacturing talent capable of building and maintaining the machines delivering fusion energy. Wisconsin can be the epicenter of an entirely new energy industry where we actually build value rather than extract it. Deploying our CoSMo™ systems could plug the global energy market into the Great Lakes manufacturing base, placing Wisconsin at the heart of the next energy revolution—where companies like ours export fusion energy machines across the globe for the benefit of all humankind. The opportunity for the state of Wisconsin is almost incalculable. We can and must seize it.
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