Lockheed Martin’s Fusion Breakthrough Is Just One Piece Of Its Fast-Growing Energy Portfolio (From Forbes)

Lockheed Martin made quite a splash this week when it disclosed work on a compact fusion reactor that could be ten times more efficient than existing fusion designs.  The company says a 100 megawatt version of the reactor capable of providing electricity for 80,000 homes could be mounted on a single truck, requiring only 55 pounds of low-cost hydrogen fuel per year to keep it going.  Unlike with fission reactors, there would be no long-term problem with radioactive waste and no danger of a meltdown.  But this is only one facet of Lockheed Martin’s rapidly-growing clean energy portfolio.  It is building the world’s biggest ocean thermal energy conversion plant off China’s coast, partnering on tidal-energy projects, applying space technology to LNG supply-chain solutions, developing biomass energy concepts, working on smart-grid implementation, and fielding cyber defenses for critical energy infrastructure.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.