US companies are on the cusp of big climate solutions. Thank the government.

A federal program called ARPA-E, which funds risky, early-stage clean energy technology, is showing strong results, according to a new report from the National Academies of Science requested by Congress. Over 15 years, the Department of Energy program has put more than $4 billion into universities and startups, helping them raise over $20 billion in additional funding and generate more than 1,400 patents. The report found that projects backed by ARPA-E were far more likely to attract further investment and patents than similar projects that were turned down.

The report says ARPA-E no longer needs to focus on solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, since those technologies have already gotten much cheaper. Instead, it recommends shifting money toward harder problems, like power that runs around the clock without fossil fuels. One notable success is Fervo, a geothermal energy company that got early ARPA-E support and is now working with Google to power data centers in Nevada. Other grantees include Form Energy, which makes batteries that store energy for days at a time, and X-energy, which builds small nuclear reactors. Future priorities could include nuclear fusion, long-term storage for solar and wind power, and cleaner ways to make steel and cement.

None of this involves a program homeowners apply to directly — it funds research and startups, not home upgrades. But it matters for the technologies that may eventually show up in your utility bill or on the grid. The Trump administration has proposed cutting ARPA-E's budget by nearly half, even as it continues issuing some new grants, and separate policy shifts have already cooled private investment in things like electric vehicle batteries.