The EIT database is currently in production release. It includes actual spending for FY2009, FY2010, FY2011, budgetary estimates for FY2012, and actual spending for ARRA investments on energy innovation. The most recent version adds significant ability to the tracker’s functionality by capture all federal investments in energy innovation, including demonstration projects, deployment incentives, and procurement spending.
Many users inside and outside the government used the last version, which solidified our confidence in its accuracy for the period it covered, and we would like to build the same confidence for this version. We continue to take feedback from users, and welcome your input. We are in the process of making a number of updates to the Tracker. These next steps are briefly summarized below.
Include capital and facility investments and SBIR grants – It was (and remains) hard to see how to allocate these accurately to RD&D activities. In cases like the NREL facility it is easy to make the argument that it should be included. In other facilities and staff it is less obvious. This is primarily a problem with DOE, and needs to be rectified at some point. More on the facilities challenge here.
Include state investments in clean energy innovation – This will be a significant undertaking, but one that is necessary for informing both state and federal clean energy innovation policy. We intend to complete a number of state case studies to prepare a complete organizational structure for capturing data from all 50 states.