Explore the Data
The Energy Innovation Project consolidates and tracks federal data on agency workforce, federal funding, and project performance across the energy innovation pipeline. A transparent, centralized database enables clear metrics for measuring outcomes and end-to-end innovation.
Explore staffing, spending, and project data using interactive filters across key categories. Tables can be downloaded in full or based on the current filtered view.
Explore key trends in staffing, spending, and project data through charts. Charts and underlying data sets can be downloaded for further use.
In 2025 DOE Spent a Small Fraction of Its Available Funding
Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) budget has grown rapidly, hitting record levels after 2022. Despite having large amount of available capital, spending has failed to keep pace, leaving billions of dollars idle.
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our methodology for a full list of offices tracked
Note: The EFI Foundation’s analysis focuses exclusively on DOE’s science and energy innovation offices, unless noted otherwise. See our methodology for a full list of offices tracked
“Total budgetary resources” include DOE’s full obligational authority in a given fiscal year, unless noted otherwise, including appropriations, unobligated carryover balances, and authority from offsetting collections. Off-budget financing accounts are excluded. Data are from the yearly Office of Management and Budget’s Technical Supplement to the Presidential Budget Request (2017-2025) and USAspending.gov.
DOE Canceled Far More Projects Than It Supported in 2025
In 2025, DOE cancelled 345 awards totaling $11.08 billion and selected grantees for 30 awards totaling $3.58 billion in 2025. Of the projects awarded, nuclear emerged as a key priority with modest funding support for critical minerals, storage, geothermal, and grid infrastructure.
DOE’s year one funding activities (in billions of dollars)
Notes: Data are from USAspending.gov and DOE’s press releases.
Notes: Data are from USAspending.gov and DOE’s press releases.
Funding Opportunity Announcements issued before January 20, 2025 but amended after are included in the planned funding numbers, as are Notices of Intent. Solicitations without funding, such as Requests for Information and the Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, were excluded from this figure. Cancellations are only included if publicly confirmed by DOE or award recipient. DOE alluded to a total of $30 billion in loan guarantee cancellations on January 22, 2026 without providing further details. Cancellations initiated by recipients are not included in this data. Data reflect DOE’s funding activities from January 20, 2025, to January 20, 2026.
The White House Proposed Significant Staff Cuts to DOE’s Science and Energy Innovation Offices for Fiscal Year 2026
If implemented, those cuts would further reduce DOE’s ability to utilize its budgetary resources effectively.
Proposed FY26 staff reductions compared to FY24 levels
Note: Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for fiscal year 2026
Note: Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for fiscal year 2026
“FTE” is used throughout to mean full-time equivalents for federal employees, as measured by OMB.
Congress Rejected Major Program Cuts and Project Terminations
DOE received $14.63 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Congressional appropriations bill passed in January, a 3% reduction from FY 2025 levels and a 43% increase from the White House proposal. The bill also includes a guardrail against future award terminations, directing that DOE “shall not terminate a federal award … on the basis that the federal award no longer effectuates program goals or agency priorities”
Difference between White House FY2026 budget request and Congress-passed FY26 Energy and Water Bill
Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for FY 2026 and…
Data are from the Office of Management and Budget’s Presidential Budget Request Technical Supplement for FY 2026 and…
H.R.6938 – Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.
Federal Data to Drive Innovation
The Energy Innovation Project aggregates federal data into a centralized database designed to equip policymakers with credible, decision-useful information.
Interested in Providing Feedback?
This is a living database. We welcome questions, suggestions, and corrections from users. For inquiries, suggestions, or to report data issues, please contact the research team
Methodology
This database tracks Department of Energy awards, spending, and workforce across three main data sets. All data cover fiscal year 2017 through present. The Projects data set is updated at the beginning of each month, while the People and Spending data sets are updated episodically as new budget documents are released,
such as the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Presidential Budget Request or a new appropriations bill from Congress. A comprehensive data dictionary is available for download, providing detailed definitions for each variable across all three data sets.
Projects Dataset
The Projects dataset includes nearly 17,000 DOE-issued awards with periods of performance beginning in FY2017 or later. All data are sourced from USASpending.gov, the Treasury Department’s official federal spending
transparency portal, except for cancellations data (see Award Status section below). The dataset encompasses grants, loans, and other financial assistance transactions issued by DOE.
Data Collection and Updates
We query USASpending.gov’s public Application Programming Interface (API) to extract comprehensive information on each award, such as:
• Obligation and outlay amounts
• Performance period start and end dates
• Primary place of performance
• Award descriptions and program activities
• Funding office designation
To track changes over time, we maintain a “Previous Obligations” column that reflects obligation values from our initial November 2025 data download. The main Obligations column contains the most current information from our most recent data refresh.
Technology and Sector Categorization
Awards are categorized by technology type and end-use sector based on keyword analysis of three fields: award description, program activities, and funding office. We recognize that many awards incorporate multiple technologies or serve multiple end-use sectors. In cases where awards could fit multiple categories, we assign them based on the field with the highest number of relevant keyword matches. Awards that do not match any keywords are categorized manually.
Award Status
The Status column indicates whether awards have been cancelled. This field includes only publicly confirmed cancellations announced by DOE and does not reflect recipient-initiated terminations or withdrawals.
Funding Office and Federal Accounts
The funding office designation indicates which DOE office’s budget the award draws from, while the federal account symbols identify the specific Treasury accounts used to fund the award. See the Federal Account Symbols section below for more information.
Spending & People Datasets
The Spending and People datasets offer a detailed, office-level view of how the Department of Energy’s non-defense programs are funded and staffed. Drawing on authoritative federal sources, these datasets bring together budget, workforce, and spending information to help users understand how resources are allocated and managed across DOE offices.
Together, they provide transparency into both financial and personnel trends, while reflecting how congressional appropriations flow through Treasury accounts and into agency operations.
Data Sources
The Spending and People datasets provide office-level metrics for DOE’s non-defense programs.
Data are sourced from the following:
• Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) annual Technical Supplements to the President’s Budget Request.
• Grants.gov, the Health and Human Services Department’s database of federal funding opportunities.
Technology and Sector Categorization
These datasets include:
• Total budgetary resources, which includes new appropriations, unobligated carryover balances, and authority from offsetting collections
• Full-time equivalent (FTE) staffing levels
• Spending on advisory and assistance services
• Other office-level financial and workforce metrics
• Federal Account Symbols
These datasets are organized by federal accounts symbols, which correspond to Treasury accounts. Congress appropriates funding to Treasury accounts, which OMB then apportions to agencies. Treasury accounts often, but do not always, map directly to individual offices. For example, the Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains Office (MESC) does not have its own Treasury account but is funded through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) account.
Tracking Implementation
Examine the impact of energy innovation policy across three key categories.
Spending
Federal investments in innovation
Projects
Progress on technology deployment
People
Federal workforce capacity to deliver innovation