This paper estimates the social rate of return to research and development (R&D) in the energy manufacturing industry. Our model tries to quantify the positive contribution that lagged R&D has on total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the manufacturing of coal, petroleum products and nuclear fuel for a number of OECD countries. Using a panel of data from the OECD STAN database we are able to obtain results suggesting that R&D has a positive and significant rate of return that varies for each country. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.