Plans

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) office planning is an iterative process that responds to various inputs from such sources as policymakers, stakeholders, office reviewers, market researchers as well as the continually evolving results of ongoing projects. This continuous process is interspersed with certain events and activities that are particularly instrumental in shaping office plans, such as the passage of various public laws. Key stakeholder input through the publication of various technology roadmaps and strategic vision documents are also critical planning drivers.

Periodically EERE offices convene to rewrite their strategic plans. These plans typically articulate an office's overall mission, vision, core goals, and key operational objectives.

Technology roadmaps are developed to support visions, goals, and missions articulated in strategic plans. Typically drafted in collaboration with external experts from industry, trade associations, universities, national laboratories, nongovernmental organizations, and others, technology roadmaps represent the consensus "best minds in the business" thinking about the major barriers and potential avenues of research to address them in a specific technology area such as photovoltaics or wind turbines. They help determine the principal activities needed to successfully develop a technology, and help shape EERE's Multiyear Program Plans.

To implement goals articulated in their strategic plans and research pathways identified in their roadmaps, EERE's R&D programs first develop Multiyear Program Plans (MYPPs). EERE's Office of Budget provides guidance to EERE's offices about their multiyear program plans, and helps ensure their plans address performance expectations of the Office of the President, OMB, and the Secretary of Energy. MYPPs serve as operational guides for offices in managing their activities and help identify clear linkages between key office activities and progress toward goals. MYPPs are also a key input to EERE's annual budget planning.

EERE and its offices submit their Presidential Budget Request annually to Congress. The budget request incorporates inputs from an office's many planning activities as well as public officials at various levels within the Administration and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). After reviewing an office's budget request, Congress determines the total amount of funding EERE offices will receive and allocates that amount among various budget and reporting categories.

Throughout their planning activities, EERE offices are informed by a wide array of analytical studies, reports, models, databases and other sources of research, knowledge and insight. Potential costs, risks, benefits and numerous other factors are widely analyzed and help inform each office's portfolio planning processes.