On December 21, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) announced the creation of a new office, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), to directly support new clean energy technology demonstration projects across the country.
The recently-enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funded OCED with over $20 billion to support clean energy demonstration projects in new fields, such as clean hydrogen, grid-scale energy storage, carbon capture, utilization, and storage, and small modular reactors. The Office aims to support projects with funds that fill critical funding gaps in the cleantech “valley of death” to ensure that more projects make it to the next stage of the innovation process and receive private financing to scale up to commercialization. OECD’s programs also include billions of dollars to invest in demonstration projects in rural and underserved communities as part of President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of clean energy investment benefits to disadvantaged communities.
U.S. DOE expects OCED to build upon the Department’s track record as a driver for clean energy investments and aid the country in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.