Earlier this year we saw Maryland’s legislature stand for solar and other renewables with the override of Governor Hogan’s veto of the Clean Energy Jobs bill. This allowed for an increase in the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 25%.
Maryland has long been a national leader in renewable energy, but could the state become the next frontier in energy storage? In the current legislation session, Maryland’s House and Senate are now looking to encourage the adoption of energy storage technologies, which will be key to the future growth of renewable resources. There are three promising bills under consideration which seek to better understand and grow the market for this emerging technology.
The Bills
Of the three bills currently on the table, two of the bills seek to incentivize storage while the third hopes to better understand the technologies implementation and the best way to facilitate its growth.
1. HB1395 – Solar Energy Grant Program
HB1395 seeks to incentivize residential owners to purchase storage technology by allowing the Solar Energy Grant Program to award grants to certain energy storage equipment, effective as of October 1, 2017. The bill does the following:
- Defines storage technologies to include electrochemical forms of storage alongside compressed air, pumped hydropower, hydrogen storage, thermal energy storage, flywheel, a super conducting magnet, capacitor, or superconducting magnet.
- Sets a capacity standard for eligible technologies at a minimum of 5 kWh, with an applicable solar photovoltaic property defined at a capacity of 20kW or less.
- Establishes that the grant amount eligible to energy storage equipment will be the lesser of $3,000 or 30% of the total installed cost of the energy storage equipment.
2. HB0490/SB0758 – Income Tax Credit – Energy Storage Systems
Joint House and Senate bills HB0490 and SB0758, if approved, would allow for a credit against the State income tax for certain costs of energy storage systems on both residential and commercial properties; commercial properties is not defined. The credit would apply to systems installed between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2021, coinciding with the ramp down of the federal Solar investment tax credit. The credits, as proposed, are as follows:
- For commercial properties, the credit would be the lesser of $150,000 or 30% of the installed system cost for commercial properties.
- For residential properties, the credit would be the lesser of $5,000 or 30% of the total installed cost of the energy storage system for residential systems.
3. HB0773/SB0715 – Clean Energy – Energy Storage Technology Study
Unlike the previously mentioned bills, which will jumpstart the market with incentives, joint bills HB0773 and SB0715 will require the Maryland Clean Energy Center to conduct a study on energy storage. The purpose of the study would be to understand what would be the most effective regulatory reforms and market incentives to increase the use of energy storage devices in Maryland in a way that is fair to all stakeholders, including the State government, electric companies, environmental organizations, providers of energy storage devices, developers, and other interested parties. The final findings of this report would be due on December 1, 2018 with an interim report due on December 1, 2017. Some of the key components of the study include:
Recent Comments