Energy Earthshots Initiative

Energy Earthshots are the frontiers of the energy future. 

They are technical and cost targets in next-generation energy technologies DOE knows will be needed to support the nation. 

Together, these goals are accelerating research, development, and demonstration breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable energy solutions by 2035 and transforming the energy economy. 

Achieving these goals will improve Americans’ lives, creating quality jobs and transforming homes, environments, and livelihoods.

Download the Energy Earthshots fact sheet.

At the Leaders’ Summit on Climate on Earth Day 2021, the President charged DOE with speeding the development of critical technologies in a suite of innovation areas. Then-Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the need for a new kind of Moonshot.

Energy Earthshots represent a commitment to the collaborative R&D powering the energy transition. DOE is working to expand the solution set and give communities more technologies and more options. When achieved, these targets will support the private-sector launch of new energy industries, help create quality jobs, lower energy costs for families across the country, and empower a robust, secure American grid.

DOE anticipates a total of six to eight Energy Earthshots.

Energy Earthshots are an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation, collaboration, and acceleration of our energy economy by tackling the toughest remaining barriers to quickly deploy emerging energy technologies at scale. To meet these targets, DOE will leverage diverse expertise and talent at American universities, businesses, and national laboratories to accelerate research and development in top linchpin technologies.

DOE has held annual Energy Earthshot Summits bringing together a wide range of stakeholders and discussing progress toward the Shot goals.

Find more information about past Summits below:

• Enhanced Geothermal Shot Summit
• Floating Offshore Wind Shot Summit
• Carbon Negative Shot Summit 
• Long Duration Storage Shot Summit 
• Hydrogen Shot Summit. 

Hydrogen Shot^™, announced June 7, 2021, sets an ambitious yet achievable cost target to accelerate innovations and spur demand of hydrogen by reducing the cost by 80%, to $1 per 1 kg of hydrogen within 1 decade.

Long Duration Storage Shot^™, announced July 14, 2021, aims to achieve affordable grid storage

—anytime, anywhere—by reducing the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90% for systems that deliver 10+ hours of duration within a decade.

Carbon Negative Shot^™, announced Nov. 5, 2021, is the all-hands-on-deck call for innovation in technologies and approaches that will remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and durably store it at meaningful scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e) within a decade.

Enhanced Geothermal Shot^™, announced Sept. 8, 2022, is a departmentwide effort to dramatically reduce the cost of enhanced geothermal systems by 90%, to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035. 

Floating Offshore Wind Shot^™, announced Sept. 15, 2022, with the goal of driving down costs to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035 to spur U.S. leadership in floating offshore wind technology and deliver benefits for coastal energy needs.

Industrial Heat Shot^™, announced Sept. 21, 2022, is a departmentwide initiative to develop cost-competitive industrial heat technologies with at least 85% lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. 

Clean Fuels & Products Shot^™, announced May 24, 2023, focuses on the fuel and chemical industry through alternative sources to advance cost-effective technologies with a minimum of 85% lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.