Energy Research

The Energy Department (DOE) generally does not require repayment of its investment in cost-shared technology development projects. GAO identified only four DOE programs requiring repayment of the federal investment if the technologies are commercialized. The four DOE offices GAO focused on--Fossil Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Environmental Management, and Nuclear Energy--plan to devote about $8 billion in federal funds to cost-shared projects, of which about $2.5 billion is subject to repayment. With repayment, the government generally receives a share of the royalties and fees from licensing technologies and revenues from commercial sales. One program allows for recovering 150 percent of the federal investment, while the other three are limited to 100 percent. The main advantage of a repayment policy is that the federal government can recoup some of its investment in successfully commercialized technologies. However, DOE officials believe that repayment could discourage industry from commercializing technologies or participating in projects, pose an administrative burden on both DOE and industry, and make technologies less competitive. In GAO's view, a flexible repayment requirement could overcome many of these problems and provide the government with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from successfully commercialized technologies.