Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard

Maryland's Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS), enacted in May 2004 and revised numerous times since, requires electricity suppliers (all utilities and competitive retail suppliers) in the state to procure a minimum portion of their electric retail sales by eligible renewable energy sources. Most recently, the Clean Energy Jobs Act of 2019 increased and extended the requirement from 25% by 2020 to 50% by 2030. 

Eligible technologies:

The renewable portfolio standard is divided into two tiers based on the electricity generation resource. Tier 1 renewables include solar, wind, biomass, anaerobic decomposition, geothermal, ocean, fuel cells powered through renewables, small

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Residential Clean Energy Rebate Program

Maryland's Residential Clean Energy Grant Program, administered by the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), provides financial incentives to homeowners that install solar water-heating, solar-electric (PV), geothermal heating and cooling systems, and burning stoves. In order to be eligible, the property must be the applicant's primary residence.


The current Clean Energy Grant Program provides incentives as follows:

Resource Conversion Technology

Installed Capacity Range

Flat Award

Solar Photovoltaic (PV)

Minimum 1 kW-DC

$1,000/project

Solar Shingles

Minimum 1 kW-DC

$1,000/project

Solar Water Heating

10+ sq. ft.

$500/project

New Geothermal Heating & Cooling (GHC)

1+ tons

$3,000/project


Note: As of October 14, 2014, geothermal installations

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Interconnection Guidelines

The Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted rules for net metering and interconnection in November 2005. Louisiana's rules, based on those in place in Arkansas, require publicly-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives to offer net metering to customers with systems that generate electricity using solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal or biomass resources.* Fuel cells and microturbines that generate electricity entirely derived from renewable resources are also eligible. The rules apply to residential facilities with a maximum capacity of 25 kilowatts (kW) and commercial systems with a maximum capacity of 300 kW.

Utilities must provide customers with a meter capable of measuring

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SRP - Net Metering

Note: Salt River Project (SRP) modified its existing net-metering program for residential customers in February 2015. These changes are effective with the April 2015 billing cycle.

Residential customers that generate part of their electricity requirements on-site are billed under SRP's Customer Generation Price Plan (Schedule E-27). Customers that have purchased their distributed energy system or signed a lease agreement before December 8, 2014 may keep their original net metering rate plan for 20 years, however.

Under the self-generation plan, customers pay a fixed monthly service fee based on the size of their electricity service and a grid, or demand, charge

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Net Metering

Note: In May 2021, in a general rate case for Kentucky Power Company, and the first such case to involve newly proposed net metering rates since S.B. 100 went into effect, the Kentucky Public Service Commission required an export credit rate of  9.746 cents per kWh. Later rate cases for Kentucky Utilities (KU) and Louisville Gas & Electric (LGE) made similar determinations, setting export credit rates of 7.366 cents per kWh for KU and 6.924 cents per KWh for LGE.

In April 2008, Kentucky enacted legislation that expanded its net metering law by requiring utilities to offer net metering to

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Connecticut Green Power Purchase Plan

In April 2004, Connecticut's governor signed an executive order directing state government agencies and universities to purchase an increasing amount of electricity generated by renewable resources. Under terms of the order, the state government has a goal to increase "Class I" renewable energy purchases to 20% of electricity used in 2010, 50% in 2020 and 100% in 2050. The order also authorizes the use of savings generated by state energy efficiency and conservation projects to fund green power purchases.

Class I renewable energy resources include solar, wind, new sustainable biomass, landfill gas, fuel cells (using renewable or non-renewable fuels), ocean

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Alternative Energy Sales Tax Exemption

Utah exempts the purchase or lease of equipment used to generate electricity from alternative resources from the state sales tax. Eligible purchases or leases must be made for or by an alternative energy production facility on or after July 1, 2004, and before June 30, 2027. All leases must be made for at least seven years.

Eligible  resources include wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity, and energy that is derived from coal-to-liquids, nuclear fuel, oil-impregnated diatomaceous earth, oil sands, oil shale, petroleum coke, waste heat from an industrial facility, or waste heat from a power station in which an electric generator

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Green Power Purchasing Goal for Federal Government

The federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) extended and expanded several previous goals and standards to reduce energy use in existing and new federal buildings. Section 203 of EPAct 2005 required that, to the extent it is economically feasible and technically practicable, the total amount of renewable electric energy consumed by the federal government during 2013 and thereafter shall not be less than 7.5%. That target was updated and expanded by a Presidential Memorandum on December 5, 2013, and again by an Executive Order on March 19, 2015. The Executive Order established additional targets, culminating in a required

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Interconnection Standards

In December 2007, the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) now called the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) approved new interconnection guidelines for distributed energy systems up to 20 megawatts (MW) in capacity. Connecticut's interconnection guidelines apply to the state's two investor-owned utilities -- Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) and United Illuminating Company (UI) -- and are modeled on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) interconnection standards for small generators.*

Connecticut's interconnection guidelines, like FERC's standards, include provisions for three levels of systems:

  • Certified, inverter-based systems no larger than 10 kilowatts (kW) in capacity (application fees: $100);
  • Certified systems
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Interconnection Standards

DC's interconnection rules apply to all distributed generation systems of 20 megawatts (MW) or smaller that are operated in parallel with the electric distribution system and are not subject to the interconnection requirements of the PJM Interconnection.

The interconnection rules set four levels of review for interconnection requests. A project must meet all of the requirements of a given classification in order to be eligible for that level of expedited review. The level of review required is generally based on system capacity, whether system components are certified, and the type of distribution circuit to which a facility will be connected

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