The Energy Department makes it easier to fund new energy tech outside of old rules

The Energy Department updated its rules for how it funds new energy technology. It wants to make it simpler to use a special type of agreement that bypasses traditional government contracts. This means the department can more easily give money to companies and researchers for projects that don't fit standard grant rules.

Government agencies often use slow, rigid contracting rules that make it hard to fund truly novel or risky projects. This change lets the Energy Department use a faster, more flexible funding tool that was previously underused. It could speed up how quickly new energy technologies move from labs to real-world deployment, especially for projects that don't fit into existing categories. This is part of a broader push across government to find ways around procurement rules that were designed for buying office supplies, not inventing the future.