2. Thea Energy’s planar coil stellarator relies on these high-temperature superconducting (HTS) planar shaping coils to confine and control plasma without the complex, bespoke magnets of traditional stellarators. This hardware standardizes manufacturing while maintaining high performance. Courtesy: Thea Energy The company on Wednesday reiterated that construction of its Eos stellarator, designed to create steady-state fusion, is enabled by Thea Energy’s simplified architecture (Figure 2) as well as its ability to build fusion systems on shorter timescales and at lower costs. “Thomas Tull has been clear about why he wanted USIT to lead this round: he believes the stellarator is the right architecture for commercial fusion, and Thea Energy is the company that makes it commercially viable,” said Gaetano Crupi, managing director at USIT. “The stellarator is an inherently stable fusion architecture that offers the most efficient path to long-term power generation, but prior 3D stellarator magnets historically made the system impractical to build. Thea Energy’s breakthroughs shift complexity from precision mechanical fabrication to software-defined controls. As energy security and rapidly increasing power demands take center stage amidst re-industrialization and the AI boom, the U.S. cannot cede leadership in fusion. Thomas believes this team and their software-based technology are a winning combination.” Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.