Full Title: Lean, Mean, and Clean II: Assessing DOD Investments in Clean Energy Innovation
Author(s): Megan Nicholson and Matthew Stepp
Publisher(s): The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Publication Date: October 1, 2012
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Description (excerpt):
Using ITIF’s Energy Innovation Tracker, this report analyzes for the first time U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) investments in clean energy innovation. Since FY2009, DOD has invested $5 billion in clean energy research, development, testing, demonstration, and procurement. DOD now procures nearly twice as many innovative clean energy technologies as it does off-the-shelf clean energy technologies. As a result, DOD accounts for 24 percent of public investments in clean energy innovation in 2012, second only to the Department of Energy (DOE). While DOE clean energy investments explicitly target commercial applications, DOD’s investments aim at fulfilling mission objectives, which limit the potential for spillover effects into the broader national energy market. Nevertheless, DOD’s investments are capable of accelerating clean energy innovation in circumstances when mission-oriented research and procurement align— namely for biofuels, power electronics, energy storage, and smart grid technologies.