$1.25 Million in Funding Available for Commercial Industrial & Agricultural Energy Upgrades

Ariann Le is a poultry farmer and past MEA grantee on the Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore

by Caitlin Madera, CI&A Energy Program Manager

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) has launched the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) Commercial, Industrial & Agricultural (CI&A) competitive grant program. This grant is open to all Maryland commercial, industrial, farms, and other agricultural organizations seeking to implement energy efficiency and conservation improvement projects to their existing or to-be-constructed facilities.

A total of $1.25 million dollars has been allocated for FY20, subject to availability, and the grant will be divided equally between two application windows, as follows:

• $625,000 available for applications received in Application Period 1 from June 28 – October 15, 2019
• $625,000 available for applications received in Application Period 2 from October 1 –January 15, 2020

If MEA does not award the full Application Period 1 budget, any remaining funds will be added to the Application Period 2 budget.

Hamilton Associates saved enough energy with their MEA grant to add on a second shift of workers. Read their energy success story here.

The FY20 CI&A Program is available for projects that increase the energy efficiency/improve the energy conservation of electric and non-electric fuel consumption of existing facilities or dedicated spaces within facilities, and for projects that propose to install above code-minimum energy efficient equipment, fixtures, and building materials that affect energy consumption in to-be-constructed facilities. This program does not include transportation fuel usage.

Tower Companies were able to focus on low-cost energy conservation measures that yielded astonishing results: a $44,000 retrofit is returning $50,000 in annual energy savings. Read their commercial energy success story here.

Projects for existing facilities can apply for up to 50% of the Net Project Cost (defined as Total Cost minus all other incentives, rebates, and leveraged funds), or $100,000, whichever is lower. If a project is making improvements at multiple facilities, the TOTAL award for all facilities under the CI&A program cannot exceed $100,000.

Projects for “To-Be-Constructed” facilities and apply for up to 50% of the Net Project Incremental Cost (defined as Total Cost minus all other incentives, rebates, and leveraged funds AND the cost of energy code-minimum technology, equipment, or building materials/envelope measures), or $100,000, whichever is lower. If a project is comprised of multiple facilities, the TOTAL award for all facilities under the CI&A program cannot exceed $100,000.

To learn more about the CI&A grant and apply today, click here.