January 17, 2028.
Helion’s Trident-1 plant in Moses Lake, Washington, achieves first grid synchronization.
Net output: 212 MW continuous.
Fuel consumption: 0.8 grams of helium-3 per day (supplied from lunar stockpile).
Operating cost: $0.008 per kWh (mostly maintenance).
The local utility — Puget Sound Energy — immediately drops wholesale rates to $0.012/kWh.
The same month, CFS ARC-1 in Devens synchronizes at 418 MW.
China’s Dragonfire-1 follows in March at 520 MW.
The grid overbuild has begun.
Fusion is not replacing old plants one-for-one.
It is flooding the market with power that costs almost nothing to produce.
The fusion rollout scoreboard – 2028–2029
| Plant / Operator | First power date | Capacity (MW net) | Fuel type | Annual output (TWh) | Wholesale price impact (local) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helion Trident-1 | Jan 2028 | 212 | D-He3 | 1.68 | $0.012/kWh (Puget Sound) |
| CFS ARC-1 | Jan 2028 | 418 | D-T | 3.31 | $0.009/kWh (New England) |
| CNNC Dragonfire-1 | Mar 2028 | 520 | D-T | 4.12 | ¥0.04/kWh (Anhui) |
| Helion Trident-2 | Jun 2028 | 220 | D-He3 | 1.74 | −$0.008/kWh (negative hours) |
| TAE Norman-1 | Oct 2028 | 110 | p-B11 | 0.87 | $0.011/kWh (California) |
| General Fusion LM26 | Dec 2028 | 160 | D-T | 1.27 | £0.008/kWh (UK) |
| Helion Trident-3–6 | Throughout 2029 | 880 total | D-He3 | 6.98 | Negative pricing widespread |
Total fusion power online by end-2029: 3.8 GW
Annual output: ~30 TWh — small globally, but concentrated in high-demand grids, causing local price crashes.
The negative price revolution – 2028–2029
| Region | Fusion capacity 2029 (GW) | Negative pricing hours/year | Average wholesale when negative | Industries relocating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Northwest (Helion) | 1.1 | 4,820 | −$0.018/kWh | Data centers, hydrogen |
| New England (CFS) | 0.8 | 4,110 | −$0.014/kWh | Aluminum smelting |
| Eastern China | 1.4 | 3,920 | −¥0.12/kWh | EV battery gigafactories |
| California | 0.6 | 5,210 | −$0.022/kWh | Desalination, crypto (briefly) |
Utilities shift to “reverse billing”: pay customers to use power during overbuild.
Average U.S. household electricity bill 2029: −$41/year credit.
The industrial rebirth – 2029
Energy-intensive processes return or explode:
- Aluminum: U.S. production +320 % (smelters reopen in Northwest)
- Hydrogen: $0.28/kg green H2 — cheaper than gray
- Direct air capture: cost falls to $42/ton CO₂
- Desalination: California coastal plants triple output, water $0.11/m³
- Compute: data center energy cost → near zero, AI training explodes
The old energy death spiral – 2029
- Coal: global retirements 1,200 GW (82 % of remaining fleet)
- Gas: peakers worthless, combined-cycle plants run at 8 % capacity factor
- Nuclear fission: last new build canceled (too slow, too expensive)
- Oil: demand down 41 % from 2025 (transport electrified, heating electric)
The fusion fuel shift – 2029
- Lunar He-3 shipments: 820 kg (from Starbase Luna expansion)
- Helion switches Trident-4+ to full He-3 for aneutronic operation
- Price: $480,000/kg (down from $2.8 million 2025)
- Earth D-T sufficient for decades, but He-3 premium for clean/direct electricity
The quiet quote from a Puget Sound Energy executive, watching the first negative pricing day, January 2028
“We used to sell power.
Now we beg people to take it.
The dashboard shows red when we have too much, not too little.
My dad worried about outages.
I worry about what to do with energy no one will buy.
Fusion didn’t just win.
It overbuilt the world.”
By Christmas 2029, fusion is on the grid at scale.
Prices are negative in leading regions.
The ignition economy is flooding the world with power that costs nothing to run.
Next post: “The Abundance Explosion – 2030–2032: When Fusion Goes Global and the Price of Everything Energy-Touched Collapses.”
The plants are online.
The power is endless.
The old economy is drowning.