Key Takeaways
- Thea Energy received a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy's ARPA-E SCALEUP program to build the first domestic production line of modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.
- The company has iterated its planar shaping coil design more than a hundred times over two years and plans to use roughly 300 of the coils in its first large-scale stellarator system, named “Eos.”
- Thea Energy spun out of Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2022 to commercialize stellarator fusion technology.
- The award follows Thea Energy's $100 million Series B raise and its “Helios” power plant design review earlier in 2026.
- SCALEUP funds previous ARPA-E awardees whose technology has reached the technical maturity and commercial scalability needed to strengthen domestic energy supply chains.
Thea Energy Scales Up Magnet Production
Thea Energy has been selected for a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) under its Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program, funding the company's push to establish the first domestic production line of modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.
Thea Energy is developing a stellarator architecture aimed at commercializing baseload fusion power. The company has spent the past two years developing and validating its foundational HTS magnet technologies, along with the manufacturing processes meant to support high-volume production.
Scaling Beyond a Hundred Design Iterations
“Our magnets are designed to be mass manufactured and in just a couple of years, we've iterated these coils over a hundred times, finalized the design, and derisked this core technology, positioning us for this next phase – manufacturing scale up,” said Brian Berzin, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thea Energy. “We will utilize approximately 300 of these planar shaping coils in our first large-scale integrated stellarator system, ‘Eos.'”
Thea Energy said its planar coil technology, developed under ARPA-E's BETHE program, is being scaled both across the fusion industry and in adjacent sectors that rely on compact, high-performance HTS magnet systems.
Federal Backing for Domestic Supply Chains
“ARPA-E's mission is to develop technologies that deliver affordable, reliable, secure energy for all Americans. Thea Energy has validated its magnets and outlined a clear strategy to scale the consistent, high-yield fabrication of these coils,” said Dr. Dave Nye, SCALEUP Federal Lead.
The award follows Thea Energy's $100 million Series B raise, its HTS magnet validation campaign, and a design review of its “Helios” power plant. Thea Energy, which spun out of Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2022, is also supported by six Department of Energy INFUSE awards.
