Zap Energy recently purchased the assets of ICAR, a global capacitor manufacturer. Specialized equipment like the automatic winding machine shown here will be used to advance and scale Zap’s fusion energy technologies, the company said. (Photo: Business Wire)
The company said it purchased liquidated assets of the global capacitor manufacturer ICAR, strengthening its engineering platform for advanced power supplies.
SEATTLE—Zap Energy reported that it acquired a substantial package of liquidated assets from ICAR, formerly a prominent global manufacturer of capacitors and power supply equipment. The move is the first phase in building out Zap’s manufacturing capability in proprietary repetitive pulsed-power technologies, Zap said in a release, and establishes a foundation for near-term development of a key system component
“This lays the cornerstone in establishing plant-ready, repetitive pulsed-power,” said Zap CEO and President Benj Conway, in the release. “Our future plant technology requires the development of specialized capacitors to power fusion—the ICAR acquisition gives us a several-year head start.”
A bank of capacitors is a key pillar of Zap Energy’s fusion technology, according to the release. Capacitors store electrical energy that can be rapidly discharged into Zap’s devices, delivering extremely high current that creates fusion conditions in a plasma configuration known as a Z pinch. Zap is designing and building a repetitively pulsed system that delivers bursts of power from such capacitor banks multiple times per second, the company said
“We now have both the equipment and the engineering talent to develop and build capacitors uniquely suited to the demands of our advanced repetitive pulsed-power systems,” said Zap Vice President of Systems Engineering Matthew Thompson, in the release
The equipment acquired by Zap from Italy-based ICAR is said to represent the majority of the company’s global manufacturing line. Zap said that during more than 70 years in business, ICAR was a major manufacturer in the development and production of high-performance capacitors. Among many applications, ICAR notably supplied capacitors to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility for fusion experiments that achieved ignition last year. The company dissolved in 2021, according to the release
Zap Energy said it is building a low-cost, compact and scalable fusion energy platform that confines and compresses plasma without the need for expensive and complex magnetic coils. Zap’s sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch technology is reported to provide compelling fusion economics and “requires orders of magnitude less capital than conventional approaches.”
Zap Energy said it has more than 100 team members in two facilities near Seattle and is backed by leading financial and strategic investors.