Maryland will offer tax credits for residential and commercial energy storage projects beginning in 2018. Although Maryland is not the first state to provide incentives for energy storage, the use of tax credits marks a departure from recent energy storage mandates.

Key Details

• Maryland will offer a 30% tax credit for the deployment of energy storage technologies from 2018 to 2022
• The tax credit is capped at $5,000 for residential storage projects and at $75,000 for commercial projects; the incentive has an overall cap of $750,000 per year
• The tax credit is technology agnostic and would apply to mechanical and thermal storage, as well as cooled liquid energy storage technologies
• Maryland’s approach is different from the Renewable Portfolio Standard style requirements used by California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York City
• The tax credit incentive, and storage requirements in other jurisdictions, comes at a time when the costs of energy storage systems are sharply decreasing
• The legislation was approved by Governor Hogan on May 4, 2017

Implications

Energy storage systems can provide a variety of grid management and cost-saving benefits to both customers and utilities. Maryland’s tax credit approach may appeal to states interested in supporting storage deployment, but would prefer to avoid imposing a mandate on electric utilities.

Additional Resources

GTM: Maryland Passes First-of-a-Kind Tax Credit for Residential and Commercial Storage

General Assembly of Maryland: Income Tax Credit – Energy Storage Systems

Additional Contributing Author: Michael Morley