DOE proposes $51B budget for fiscal year 2025

In President Biden’s budget for fiscal year 2025, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) requests $51 billion in spending for 2025, a $3.6 billion or 7.5 percent increase from the 2023 level.

“President Biden’s budget request reflects his commitment to building a clean energy future that is made in America, powered by American workers,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “The FY 2025 Budget provides the Department with critical resources to transform the President’s historic clean energy investments into reality—as we continue to lay the building blocks for an inclusive clean energy economy that lifts up all communities across the country, while tackling the climate crisis head-on.”

Within the budget request, DOE seeks $1.6 billion to support clean energy workforce and infrastructure projects including: $385 million to weatherize and retrofit homes of low-income Americans. Weatherization programs work with local contractors to improve home performance and reduce annual energy costs by approximately $372 per household.

In addition, the budget is asking for $95 million to electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal universities to renewable energy; $113 million for the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains to strengthen domestic clean energy supply chains; and $102 million to support utilities and State and local governments in building a grid able to integrate electricity from clean energy sources.

Further, the budget includes $8.5 billion to support researchers and entrepreneurs transforming innovations into commercial clean energy products, including those in offshore wind; industrial heat; sustainable aviation fuel; and grid infrastructure. That includes $325 million to support the research, development, and demonstration of technologies to increase the domestic supply of critical minerals essential for several clean energy technologies. It also allocates $76 million to advanced technologies that can enable earlier detection of methane leaks and $150 million to make small quantities of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) available for ongoing advanced nuclear reactor demonstrations.

It also funds eight crosscutting DOE Energy Earthshots initiatives which could substantially reduce the cost of energy for consumers through innovations in clean energy generation, energy efficiency, and storage.

Additionally, it calls for investments in foundational research and laboratory infrastructure to support innovation across multiple disciplines from Artificial Intelligence and advanced computing to nuclear fusion and microelectronics.

It provides an investment of $8.6 billion for the Office of Science to support research at DOE’s 17 National Laboratories and academic and private sector partners. These investments support identifying and accelerating technologies for clean energy solutions, improving predictability of climate trends and extremes using high performance computing, providing new computing insight through quantum information, and meeting the demand for isotopes.

Within funding for Science, the budget provides over $800 million to advance the basic research needed to solve fundamental science and technology gaps towards the development of fusion power as a clean energy source in the U.S.

Also, the budget provides an investment of $25 billion to implement the President’s National Defense Strategy and the Nuclear Posture Review, including $19.9 billion for Weapons Activities. This funding will modernize the Nation’s nuclear deterrent and supports a nuclear stockpile and makes necessary investments to reduce global nuclear threats, provide safe and effective integrated nuclear propulsion systems for the U.S. Navy, and modernize the Nuclear Security Enterprise. Further, it enhances DOE capabilities to prevent and respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction terrorist attacks by non-state actors. It continues investments to develop the next generation of arms control technologies and experts to help mitigate against emerging and evolving national security risks.