Imagine:

One day in the early 2030s, an engineer at a newly constructed power plant near Richmond, Virginia, in the United States, will press a button. It will ignite the same reaction that takes place in our sun's core.

Inside a doughnut-shaped machine called a 'tokamak,' hydrogen isotopes will collide at enormous speed, fusing into helium. This reaction will produce 400 megawatts (MW) of clean, firm electricity, enough for a small city. This electricity will hit Virginia's power grid nanoseconds later, making nearby residents the first human beings to benefit from commercial fusion power generation.

By the time their children retire, fusion may be the world's dominant energy source, ushering in an era of energy abundance, not scarcity. And it will be the cheapest reliable power, and incidentally, the cleanest power too.

Fusion is the future of the global energy sector — the near future. While it may not happen exactly as we've just described, the first fusion power plant will almost certainly begin operations shortly after President-elect Trump's second term expires.