Welcome to FirstPrinciples.Energy! You’re reading the first post on this nascent little site.
By way of an introduction, I’m Nick Barsley – a Cambridge University and MIT educated engineer with an MBA with distinction from INSEAD. For the last seven years I have worked in strategy for large firms – a job that really boils down to really clear structured thinking. I learnt to think this way through both the engineering, but also world-class mentorship during 5 years at The Boston Consulting Group post-MBA.
Throughout my life, I’ve had an interest in fusion power. As more and more industries are disrupted with advanced technology (whether the precipitous fall in the cost of computing power, the rise of rapid prototyping, or machine learning), I’m convinced that ALL industries are now seeing increased acceleration of development cycles.
Fusion has one of the longest development cycles of a technology that humans have embarked upon. Despite billions of $ being spent over the decades, no fusion power stations exist today.
Why is that? What makes it so hard? What are the ways we are trying to tackle it? What are the pros and cons of those avenues? What avenues aren’t being explored?
All these questions and more I hope to explore in this site over the coming years.