Maryland Launches $200M Competitive Grant Program to Expand Renewable Capacity

Maryland has launched a two-year, $200 million grant competition aimed at expanding in-state renewable generation and energy storage, as the state moves to fill a gap left by reduced federal clean energy funding.

The “Megawatts for Maryland” programme, administered by the Maryland Energy Administration, can draw up to $100 million a year from Maryland’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund. Its grants cover the development and construction costs of renewable generation and storage projects. The initiative was authorized under the Utility RELIEF Act, signed into law this year by Governor Wes Moore.

State officials said the program is designed to respond to rising electricity demand by adding cheaper in-state supply — a strategy intended to lower utility bills over the long run. The awards are expected to bring hundreds of megawatts of new capacity online, an amount equivalent to the consumption of more than 150,000 households.

The backdrop is a federal policy shift: cuts to clean energy support under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act have prompted Maryland to replace part of that funding from its own budget. Governor Moore described the competitive program as one of the tools the state is deploying to provide residents with cost relief as energy prices climb across the region.

Joseline Peña-Melnyk, speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, said reliable electricity at prices families and businesses can afford was the reason increasing the state’s energy supply was made central to the Utility RELIEF Act, and that a competitive process would help bring new solar generation online sooner.

The program forms part of a broader package: the same law also directed $300 million in direct utility-bill assistance to consumers. In September, Governor Moore signed a separate executive order addressing the effect that growing data-centre consumption is having on electricity costs in the power system.

Source: Solar Power World