New $200M program aims to boost Maryland clean energy

A new $200 million Maryland grant program aims to finance clean energy development and boost generation on the region’s stressed power grid.

The grants, announced Monday, are part of a broader push by Maryland leaders to address the state’s dwindling power generation, surging electricity demands from data centers and climbing consumer energy prices.

Officials with the Maryland Energy Administration believe the funding will help finance “several hundred megawatts” of energy, or enough to power around 150,000 homes. The program targets battery storage projects and renewable sources, which the state considers to be solar arrays, wind farms, geothermal power, and some types of biofuels.

“This is simple economics,” said Maryland Energy Administration Director Kelly Speakes-Backman. “When high demand sends prices up, we need to bring more supply online.”

Called “Megawatts for Maryland,” the program was authorized earlier this year by Democratic leadership in the General Assembly through a sweeping energy law, the Utility RELIEF Act. Energy officials framed the grants Monday as a way to fill financing holes created by Trump administration’s cuts to federal clean energy tax credits.

Grants will be administered over two years and draw on appropriations from the state’s clean energy fund. That fund has ballooned, thanks to compliance payments from utility companies, and lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore’s administration have nearly exhausted it in recent years to finance energy rebates and clean energy projects as well as to balance the budget.

Clean energy projects, including wind farms, solar arrays and batteries, have frequently encountered local opposition around the state, hampering the expansion of renewable power.

MEA spokesperson Erin Dempsey said eligible projects must meet criteria for financial solvency and public engagement — including through plans for potential community benefits agreements — but under state law, awards at auction must go to projects offering the lowest energy prices.

Recipients also must have applied for state permits and connections to the regional power grid.

While Maryland leaders have searched for ways to amp up energy output, the state has slipped well behind the pace on its goal to zero out its contributions to climate change. Maryland has struggled to replace large coal and natural gas plants with renewable power sources, an effort that has seen further setbacks because of President Donald Trump’s attacks on offshore wind projects.

The state’s money can only do so much to counteract federal policy, Speakes-Backman acknowledged.

“We are one state within the entire nation,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s a drop in the bucket, either.”