Maryland Energy Administration Announces $1 Million in Funding for Resilient Clean Energy Projects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jahmai Sharp-Moore | 443-694-3651

Baltimore – The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is pleased to announce awardees of the first ever Resilient Maryland program. This highly-competitive pilot program was developed in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) to drive economic growth through innovative clean energy technology, which will enable essential services, businesses and other organizations to resist power disruptions and outages. A total of 14 grant applications have been awarded $1.05 million dollars in funding. 

“By funding vital infrastructure projects, Resilient Maryland will support our state’s clean energy future while securing affordable, reliable energy for Marylanders who need it most,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “This is just one more way that we are delivering on our commitment to innovative, common sense initiatives that protect our environment and promote economic opportunity.” 

“The Resilient Maryland pilot offers a unique opportunity for innovation in Maryland across a variety of clean energy alternatives, reducing both financial risk and total project costs,” explained MEA Director Mary Beth Tung. “The response to this pilot was incredible, in fact, it was one of our most popular programs this year.”

Energy resiliency has taken center stage in the face of increasing global threats to grid integrity and severe storms, which can cause extended power outages. The goal of this program is to provide the state with replicable, scalable, and cost-effective solutions that will serve as models for wide-scale adoption. The high demand for this pilot program underscores the importance of state investment in innovation and why the programs like Resilient Maryland can help kick-start job growth. 

Award winners include projects from across the state that address a variety of groups from low-to-moderate income communities and critical infrastructure facilities to commercial projects and government facilities. These projects address essential infrastructure needs that will bring a lasting benefit to the state. Here are a few spotlight award winners: 

Frostburg State University received $100,000, and will partner with Optimize Renewables (OR), an energy system planning and design firm to engineer a campus-scale microgrid to serve the university and local community. The microgrid will bolster campus energy resilience, further sustainability goals, and provide students with real world job training under the direction of OR and in partnership with the university. This project will help displaced workers transition to the clean energy industry. 

Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is a nonprofit that helps electric utilities implement and deploy clean energy and distributed resources. SEPA will use their grant of $99,725 to join forces with Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, City of Annapolis and Gabel Associates to plan and design a community-scale microgrid for the Newtowne Twenty multifamily housing community in Annapolis. Newtowne Twenty is undergoing a community revitalization effort and the implementation of a clean energy microgrid solution will deliver lasting environmental, sustainability, and economic benefits to a community of the city’s most vulnerable populations.

Groundswell, Inc. is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding solar power to marginalized communities via community solar projects. Using their $300,000 grant, Groundswell will work with the City of Baltimore to plan and design multiple community resiliency hubs throughout the city’s most vulnerable communities. Hubs provide a centralized, trusted community location where community members can access reliable power for their essential devices, continue to receive information as emergency situations develop, store medications sensitive to temperature, and safely congregate until proper emergency response services arrive.

MEA congratulates its FY20 grantees and looks forward to the partnership to come. Click below for a full list of award winners.

MEA Resilient Maryland FY 20 Award List

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Maryland Energy Administration

The mission of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is to promote affordable, reliable and cleaner energy for the benefit of all Marylanders. To achieve its mission, MEA advises the Governor and General Assembly on matters relating to energy policy. MEA administers grant and loan programs to encourage clean energy technologies in all sectors of Maryland’s economy: residential, commercial, agricultural, and transportation. For more information about the Maryland Energy Administration, visit www.energy.maryland.gov and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.