American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Accelerates Solar Installations

We recently came across some some MD Energy Administration “MEA” updates about the continued interest in solar amongst the states residents.

( The following info was received from the MD Energy Administration )

The Maryland Energy Administration’s budget for its residential solar and geothermal grant programs has seen a near ten-fold increase over just the last two years.  Fiscal year 2010 was a record funding year for MEA; supported by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) as well as proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), MEA was able to award grants to over 2,000 Maryland residents and small business owners.

Demand for MEA’s residential solar and geothermal programs remain high with several hundred applicants still awaiting grant approval.  With the strong rate of incoming applications, MEA has now reserved nearly all of the ARRA funds for the both the residential solar and geothermal programs.  In order to continue reaching as many Marylanders as possible with our grants, MEA is today announcing an update to the calculation of our Solar PV, Solar Hot Water, and Geothermal grants.

New grant calculations are as follows:

Solar PV: A flat rate of $0.50 per watt (DC)

Maximum grant is $10,000 for a 20 Kilowatt system.

Solar Hot Water: 20% of total cost of system, capped at a maximum grant of $1,500

Geothermal: Grant remains at $500/Ton with new cap at $2,000 for residential customers.

Effective Date:This update will become effective at 4 PM on Monday August 23, 2010.  Grant applications must be received by MEA (either hand delivered or by mail) no later than 4 PM on Monday August 23rd in order to be eligible for the previous grant calculation.  Any grant application received after 4 PM on Monday August 23, 2010 will fall under the new grant calculation.