The government has announced £20 million of funding towards ‘Starmaker One’, a British fusion private investment fund that will help support startup fusion businesses in the sector to grow.

Fusion releases huge amounts of energy by combining two forms of hydrogen and heating them at high temperatures.

The investment is expected to raise, overall, between £100 and £150 million (including the £20 million from the department of energy security and net zero) for private sector investment into fusion-related technology. This will, in turn, help the UK establish itself as a world leader in the technology and creating highly-skilled jobs.

This comes as companies in the UK largely attribute a lack of access to capital as a barrier to scaling up and commercialising their business, which a boost from the government could greatly help. This will give the private sector an incentive to invest in fusion, developing its expansive potential as an unlimited energy source and cementing the UK’s place in the global fusion race.

The cash boost will go towards training for small companies in key areas like physics, engineering, and chemistry, as well as supporting companies to develop technologies and capitalise on the opportunities of fusion energy in markets such as magnetics, industrial AI, robotics, healthcare, transportation, and energy storage.

Fusion is an important element of the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor with independent research from London Economics showing that every £1 investing in fusion benefits the economy by nearly £4.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “This government is taking back control of Britain’s energy by driving for clean homegrown power through our Plan for Change.

“Fusion has the potential to provide us with energy security, whilst attracting the best technologies to our shores and training up the next generation of British scientists and engineers.

“We are backing both nuclear and fusion power, and today we take a step forward in growing this exciting industry.”