The Department of Energy still has 98.8 percent of its stimulus cash sitting in the bank.

Only $451 million of the $36.7 billion the DOE received when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law in February has been accounted for as "spent." It's a stunning number, but it's likely more money has already been spent, even if it hasn't made it onto the agency's books yet.

It just takes a while for the money spent on new jobs or projects to be recorded, said Matt Rogers, a senior advisor to Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, and the department's Recovery Act czar.

"We have moved $9.8 billion out the door," Rogers told Wired.com. "I think we're right on track with where we expected to be."

The DOE has only awarded $10 billion to companies, which works out to a little over a quarter of its total stimulus cash. That doesn't compare favorably with the average agency. Thirty-five percent of the total sum of money that all federal agencies received has already been spent. But perhaps we should expect the DOE to take a little more time reviewing applications.

The DOE spending situation is paralleled at the other science-based agencies like the National Science Foundation, NASA, and Environmental Protection Agency. Together, those agencies have only registered 1.2 percent of their $44 billion in Recovery Act money spent.

Rogers argued the DOE's pace and process were most advantageous for taxpayers, though. He referenced the competitive applications that were submitted by companies in hopes of grabbing $2.4 billion for advanced batteries. More than 2,000 peer reviewers are helping vet applications for the DOE.

"We awarded one out of every five projects, so the projects we were able to select are terrific projects," Rogers said. "If we don’t go through this competitive process, you don’t see the best projects. There's a time-quality trade-off."

The agency expects to award $16 billion by the end of September and $30 billion by the end of 2009, Rogers said. An additional $4 billion in loan guarantees might not show up in the books for months, but that money is headed into the field, too. If they hit their targets, more than 90 percent of the cash that Congress gave the DOE will be out of the agency's hands, even if it technically remains in the bank.

"We have a lag between obligation and costing," Rogers said. "I've been less focused on the costing column because I don't think it is illustrative of the hiring and impact in the marketplace. I'm going to be more worried about that if we don’t see it moving by the end of the year."

Departments like Labor, Agriculture, and Commerce used their cash for projects that didn't require a competitive grant application process. Thus, the Department of Labor has spent nearly 68 percent of its $24.7 billion allotment and the Department of Health and Human Services 65 percent of its $42.3 billion.

Curt Rich, head of public policy practice at Van Ness Feldman, said the DOE had an uphill battle getting the funds out quickly. He noted that the main internal beneficiary of the DOE, the office for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy had never seen this kind of money. And it all came flowing in under a new administration and DOE chief.

"While folks were waiting for solicitations to come out, there was some grousing," Rich said. "I think in hindsight, what they've been able to get done in six months is very impressive."

One would-be DOE stimulus money recipient, Oakland solar thermal company, Brightsource, gave the process high marks, too, even if it was taking a while.

"My opinion is that the DOE is doing a really good job in balancing the need for immediate stimulus while protecting the taxpayers' interest," said Keely Wachs, a spokesperson for the company, which has been negotiating a loan guarantee deal with the agency for months. "When I put only my Brightsource hat on, I think, 'Let's get it done.' But as a taxpayer, I want to make sure that those funds are being used appropriately."

Many in the clean tech industry, which will receive the lion's share of the funds, expect the DOE to ramp up pay-outs to companies over the next few weeks.

"We've got very high assurances that the floodgates are about to open in early September," said Dallas Kachan, managing director of the Cleantech Group.

Rogers said to expect major announcements out of the DOE every couple of weeks. For example, the grant winners receiving some of the $4.5 billion allocated to smart grid equipment will be announced soon.

"We'll see the big, investment-focused pieces now," Rogers said. "That's going to be the primary story as we work through the fall."

Image: flickr/nathangibbs

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Google Reader feed, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.**