And even that “more power than we put into it” comes with a big asterisk. The power being output by the laser is smaller than the power being output by fusion. Big lasers tend to be grossly inefficient things. We’ll need at least 10 times the output in order to generate enough to power the laser. That’s not even considering the power usage of the facility around it.
So, yeah, we’re at least a few years away from enough power for the laser to sustain itself, at least a few more to be able to run the facility and still have net power, and then at least a decade after that to get to commercialization.
And even that “more power than we put into it” comes with a big asterisk. The power being output by the laser is smaller than the power being output by fusion. Big lasers tend to be grossly inefficient things. We’ll need at least 10 times the output in order to generate enough to power the laser. That’s not even considering the power usage of the facility around it.
So, yeah, we’re at least a few years away from enough power for the laser to sustain itself, at least a few more to be able to run the facility and still have net power, and then at least a decade after that to get to commercialization.