Game Changer Program: Energy Innovation Competitive Grants

What is the program?

What projects are eligible?

How do I apply?
MEA will provide grants to get innovative clean energy projects deployed on our grid. For more information, read our Goals and Incentives. Eligible projects include solar and non-solar technologies, and can be either installed clean energy technologies or feasibility studies. For more information, read our Project Requirements. To apply, applicants will need to confirm that their project meets program requirements. Then, applicants will submit a written proposal that includes four sections. For details, read How to Apply.

NEW! Game Changer Grants Now Open

Goals and Incentives

Related programs

Among its responsibilities, MEA is charged with promoting the transfer and commercialization of energy technology from private and public laboratories to the citizens of the State.

Based on this responsibility and authority, MEA is interested in supporting the deployment of "game changing" or innovative, early-commercialization stage energy generation (electric or thermal energy) technologies in actual installed projects. MEA's ultimate objectives are to mitigate the additional costs and risks of installing game changer technologies, evaluate the efficacy of those technologies through performance data collection and analysis, and to assess the cost/benefit ratios of those technologies through life cycle analyses.

A Game Changer competitive grant applicant may request a grant in an amount up to the difference in installed costs between (“game changer” technologies or systems being proposed) and (conventional technologies or systems, as determined by a baseline of technology costs, as determined by MEA).

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Project Requirements

Generally, Game Changer projects must have the potential to significantly advance the State’s clean energy market, as demonstrated with commercially available technologies, in projects that are physically located in Maryland.

For the current open round of funding, MEA like to see applications for funding that include geothermal heating and cooling, or bioenergy, technologies, systems, or applications that are utilized in other states or parts of the world but that have not been introduced in Maryland. The technologies, systems, or applications must have the potential of significantly advancing the State’s clean energy generation market. Examples could include:

    • Innovative financing and how it can address the first cost barrier to market entry for non-residential applications,
  • Centralized wells to distribute and store conditioned water/glycol to multiple applications to achieve greater economies of scale,
  • Well drilling equipment and methods to reduce first costs of installation,
  • Geothermal projects that add significant value to energy/environmental sustainability frameworks and which could become part of   building codes & standards in the future,
  • Biomass boiler technologies that can utilize a variety of biomass feedstocks to produce thermal energy and/or electricity to meet local energy needs and produce thermal energy and/or electricity to meet local energy needs.

MEA expects Quarterly Progress Reports, a Final Report, 1 year of Annual Energy Performance Measurement Data, and a Life Cycle Analysis based on costs and performance data from grant recipients.

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How to Apply

Grant proposals will not exceed 15 pages, and should provide relevant information for the following four sections:

  • Technical
  • Grant Request
  • Key Personnel and Corporate Qualifications
  • Terms and Conditions

MEA will accept:

  • Hard copy applications postmarked on/before Monday, April 22, 2013.
  • Electronic applications emailed by Midnight on Monday, April 22, 2013.

For more specific information about eligibility criteria, proposal requirements, and full details of the competitive grant, please download the Game Changer Competitive Grants outline.

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Additional Information

For general Game Changer Grant questions, email Doug Hinrichs, MEA Clean Energy Program Manager, at dhinrichs@energy.state.md.us.

For specific questions relating to bioenergy, email Kyle Haas, MEA Clean Energy Program Manager, at khaas@energy.state.md.us.

Recent Game Changer Grant Awardees

MEA released the original funding opportunity announcement in June 2012 and received over 30 grant applications in response. In early 2013, MEA made four Game Changer 1.0 awards, namely to:

  • TimberRock Energy Solutions, for Solar-Charged Electric Vehicles (EVs) at a General Motors Plant in White Marsh. This innovative configuration will allow a solar PV array, Lithium-ion batteries, and advanced inverters to channel energy to send solar electrons to EVs, the GM plant, or the power grid for Frequency Regulation ancillary services which could help pay for the batteries. This project will also be, perhaps, the world’s first real Vehicle-to-Grid analysis that uses four on-the-road electric vehicles made by a major auto manufacturer.
  • Standard Solar, for the State’s First Solar Microgrid at a mixed-use property owned by Konterra, near Laurel. This project will involve an islandable microgrid at one Konterra property that will be energized by a solar PV array kept online by advanced energy storage system in the event of a conventional power grid outage. Most solar PV systems are knocked offline by a power grid outage since inverters require energy to convert PV power, in DC, to usable power, in AC. Several end-users could benefit from such a system, including first responders, the military, telecommunications, waste water treatment plants, and emergency shelters.
  • Skyline Innovations, for Cost-effective Glazed Polymeric Solar Water Heating Systems. This innovative, low-cost technology will be installed at one Multi-family Housing application, then compared to the more conventional flat plate and evacuated tube technologies at two other Multi-family Housing applications.
  • Land and Cultural Preservation Fund, for Community-scale Wind Project Assessment and Development across the State. This project will use LIDAR and SODAR wind resource assessment technologies to determine sites that show technically and economically feasible sites for community-scale wind around Maryland. The grant recipient will then help those communities bring their projects to market through targeted outreach and communications.

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