Workers at the Commonwealth Fusion Systems campus in Devens, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC's growing conviction that fusion is within reach after decades of research comes as the company completes the magnet that will be critical for containing the superheated plasma needed to generate power. (Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC, a leader in the race to develop fusion power, has leased a site for its first commercial-scale power plant in a sign of confidence that it can build a system harnessing the energy of the stars.

Commonwealth said this would mark the world’s first grid-scale commercial plant for the power source, though it’s still several years away. The company plans to build the system near a Dominion Energy Inc. natural gas plant in Virginia, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Richmond, according to a statement Tuesday.

Commonwealth,which dubs itself the largest private fusion company, has raised more than $2 billion, far more than any of its rivals, and is building a demonstration system at its Devens, Massachusetts, headquarters to contain a superheated cloud of plasma that releases energy as hydrogen atoms fuse into heavier elements. That device, Sparc, is expected to achieve a critical milestone in 2027, triggering a fusion reaction that generates more energy than is needed to sustain the process. That will pave the way for Arc, the larger, commercial version that may go into service at the Virginia site in the early 2030s.

The company looked at numerous potential sites in the US and the UK. The Virginia location was selected because it offers a connection to the grid as well as easy access for employees, equipment and visitors that are interested in what may become the world’s first commercial fusion system.