The Obama administration has proposed to increase federal investments in research and development projects on clean energy from $6.4 billion in fiscal year 2016 to $12.8 billion in FY 2021 as part of FY 2017 budget request.A White House blog post published Thurday that the proposed funding is part of the U.S. government’s commitment to Mission Innovation, a global initiative that seeks to advance private and public sector investments in clean energy technology platforms in an effort to address climate change.
Ali Zaidi, associate director for natural resources, energy and science at the Office of Management and Budget, co-wrote the blog post with Lynn Orr, undersecretary for science and energy at the Energy Department.
Zaidi and Orr wrote that the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy has funded at least 500 clean energy projects that have secured over $1.25 billion in follow-on private sector funds since 2009.
DOE also has introduced several programs in order to leverage its 17 national laboratories, such as the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs that seek to recruit and help researchers transition their energy technologies to market and Lab-Corps that aims to provide customer-focused training program for national lab researchers.
Other DOE initiatives that seek to help entrepreneurs commercialize their clean energy technologies include the Cleantech University Prize, Build4Scale and the National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy.
