New administrations promote their priorities and steer policy by proposing changes in the budgets for the federal agencies. Zeroing out funds for some programs and proposing new offices is par for the course and illustrates where the politically appointed department leaders are focusing their attention. In the fiscal year (FY) 2022 request for the Department of Energy (DOE), several proposals to create new offices/agency structures share a common theme: push the market to adopt DOE-developed technology. Making sure the outputs of DOE’s vast research and development (R&D) portfolio don’t sit on a shelf collecting dust is one thing, but pushing the private sector to take up chosen tech has a checkered history.

Three requested additions to DOE demonstrate the new administration’s intent: a separate line item for the Office of Technology Transitions, a new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), and a new Advanced Research Project Agency – Climate (ARPA-C).

The idea of creating an office devoted to helping companies access DOE R&D to commercialize new technology is not new. The Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs were created in 1982 and 1992 respectively and help companies conduct their own R&D and gain development rights to technologies. Those programs still exist within the Office of Science and received $320 million in FY2020.

At one point, DOE also created a Technology Transfer Ombudsman position, but it was short-lived. Then in FY 2015-2016, the DOE under President Obama quietly shifted funds from other programs to start up the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT). In its request for FY2017, DOE proposed to formally stand up the office as its own sub-agency. Congress declined. For FY2018, the Trump Administration’s asked for $7 million to put the OTT under the overall Departmental Administration Budget. Congress agreed and most recently appropriated $17.6 million to it for FY2021.

Now, the Biden Administration is asking for $19.5 million and wants OTT to stand on its own, as the Obama Administration requested. DOE claims the move is to “to increase transparency and reflect the need for multi-year funding.”

In the budget for FY2022, DOE also proposes creating the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) and requests $400 million for its first year. The office will offer competitive solicitations to companies to demonstrate new technologies with the intent of speeding their way to commercialization. What counts as “clean energy” is not clear. Nor is how the new OCED will differ from past DOE demonstration efforts. Notably, DOE spent billions of dollars trying to demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration technologies with little success. Other programs to demonstrate technologies like advanced nuclear reactors already exist throughout the DOE budget and have also met with mixed success. Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into a new office is no guarantee that the private sector will adopt DOE-preferred technologies.

Lastly, the DOE requests $200 million to create a new Advanced Research Project Agency – Climate (ARPA-C). After the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) gained notoriety by developing the precursor to the modern internet, policymakers became increasingly sympathetic to new ARPAs and their funding. Congress created ARPA-E (for Energy) in 2007. Now, the Biden Administration wants to create several new ARPAs including ARPA-C. The goal, like the other new programs mentioned here, is to help commercialize technology. According to the request, it will “address research activities that encompass more than energy emissions.”