Maryland Energy Administration Offers Initiatives to Ensure Cleaner, More Cost-Efficient Public School Facilities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jahmai Sharp-Moore | 443-694-3651

Baltimore, MD- The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is pleased to announce the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) renewal of its Decarbonizing Public Schools Program. The program offers grant funding to school districts to expand their capacities for managing energy data, reduce operating costs, and incorporate energy performance criteria into capital improvement planning. Overall program funding for FY23 is $1.8 million, allocated from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund. 

This year’s effort builds on the pilot program, which engaged seven Maryland public school districts in collaboration with the Maryland Interagency Commission for School Construction (IAC). Both MEA and IAC wish to jump-start school districts’ long-term capacities to stay current with evolving technologies and legislation pertaining to greenhouse gas reduction through clean and efficient energy use. The Decarbonizing Public Schools program offers participants the fiscal resources to engage technical assistance when adopting one or both of two high-performance energy principles. One is energy data management, which provides a diagnostic pulse on energy use and expenses. The second is net zero energy (NZE) facility design, which involves technologies that would allow a school facility to use a volume of energy that is equal to or less than the energy that it generates onsite through efficiency combined with clean energy technologies such as solar, geothermal or combined heat and power.

“Several Maryland school districts are getting a head start in adopting high-performance energy principles thanks to last year’s pilot,” said Dr. Mary Beth Tung, Director of MEA. “The Decarbonizing Public Schools program enables technologies that reduce energy expenses now and in the future, while at the same time addressing environmental impacts. This is a win-win for school systems and the students and staff they serve.” 

School districts can apply for grant funding to defray the cost of consultants, staff and software to enable the district to manage energy data in concert with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager energy data analytics platform.

Alternatively, school districts may use grant funding to cover the costs of consultative services or additional staff for developing feasibility plans for adopting NZE principles to its portfolio of new facility construction. Grant funding will aid recipient school districts to develop strategies for harmonizing NZE technologies with considerations unique to their facility portfolios. 

Please click here to learn more about the program and apply. 

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