Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Section 5-901

      (a)      In this subtitle, the following words have the meanings indicated.

      (b)      "Acquisition" means the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, equipping, expansion, extension, improvement, rehabilitation, or remodeling of 1 or more facilities or energy projects.

      (c)      "Authority" means the Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority.

      (d)      "Authorized purpose obligations" means bonds or notes, or other instruments, certificates, or other evidences of obligation issued, offered for sale or delivered by any person or public body for any purpose found and determined by the Authority to accomplish the purposes of this subtitle.

      (e)      "Bonds" means bonds, notes, bond anticipation notes, notes in the nature of commercial paper or other instruments, certificates, or evidences of obligation issued and sold by any public body, agency or instrumentality of the State to finance or refinance 1 or more facilities, or to refund outstanding bonds, including, by way of example, bonds within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act and bonds within the meaning indicated in this subtitle.

      (f)      "Cogeneration" means the combined generation by any facility of:

            (1)      Electrical or mechanical power; and

            (2)      Steam or other forms of useful energy, such as heat, that are used for industrial, commercial, heating, or cooling purposes.

      (g)      "Commercial building" means, for the purpose of providing financial assistance for an energy conservation project or a solar energy project in a commercial building, any building, other than a residential building, that is used primarily to carry on a business, including any nonprofit business, and is not used primarily for the manufacture or production of raw materials, products, or agricultural commodities.

      (h)      "County" means any of the 23 counties of Maryland, and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore.

      (i)      "Department" means the Department of Business and Economic Development of the State.

      (j)      "Energy audit" means:

            (1)      An energy audit performed for purposes of the National Energy Conservation Policy Act, P.L. 95-619; or

            (2)      An on-site inspection of a commercial building, an industrial building, or an industrial process, which inspection includes a determination of, and provides information on:

                  (i)      The type, quantity, and rate of energy consumption of the building or process;

                  (ii)      Appropriate energy conserving maintenance and operation procedures that may be employed to reduce the energy consumption of the building or process; and

                  (iii)      The cost of implementing appropriate energy conservation projects or solar energy projects and the savings in energy costs that are likely to result from the implementation of the projects.

      (k)      "Energy conservation project" means:

            (1)      With respect to a commercial building, an industrial building, or an industrial process, the purchase or installation or modification of an installation which is designed primarily to reduce the consumption of energy, including:

                  (i)      Caulking and weather stripping;

                  (ii)      The insulation of the building structure and any system within the building;

                  (iii)      A storm window or door, a multiglazed window or door, heat-absorbing or heat-reflecting window or door system, glazing, reduction in glass area, or other window or door system modification;

                  (iv)      An automatic energy control system;

                  (v)      Any equipment associated with an automatic energy control system which is required to operate a variable steam, hydraulic, or ventilation system;

                  (vi)      A modification of a furnace or a utility plant and distribution system including:

                        1.      A replacement burner, furnace, or boiler, or any combination of these items, that increases the energy efficiency of the heating system;

                        2.      Any device for modifying a flue opening that increases the energy efficiency of the heating system; and

                        3.      An electrical or mechanical furnace ignition system that replaces a standing gas pilot light;

                  (vii)      The replacement or modification of a lighting system that increases the energy efficiency of the lighting system;

                  (viii)      An energy recovery system;

                  (ix)      A cogeneration system;

                  (x)      Any system for processing or converting to steam, electricity, heat, or other useful form of energy, the waste products of the industrial process;

                  (xi)      An improvement to the industrial process that reduces the energy requirements per unit of output; and

                  (xii)      Any other energy conservation improvement that the Authority determines by rule and regulation as appropriate and consistent with the legislative purpose of this subtitle; and

            (2)      With respect to a commercial building, an industrial building, or an industrial process, any planning or technical service, and any energy audit, if the service or audit is related to or undertaken with the installation, or the modification of the installation, that includes any of the items specified in paragraph (1) of this subsection.

      (l)      "Energy project" means:

            (1)      The construction of a facility for the production of solar energy equipment;

            (2)      An energy conservation project;

            (3)      A solar energy project;

            (4)      (i)      The construction of a facility or portion of a facility for:

                        1.      The production of gaseous, liquid, or solid fuel and by-products from any organic matter, other than a fossil fuel, including from an agricultural crop or agricultural waste or residue, wood or wood waste or residue, animal waste, aquatic plant, sewage, sewage sludge, or municipal or industrial or commercial waste, or any mixture of one of these substances with inorganic refuse from any publicly or privately operated municipal waste collection or similar disposal system; and

                        2.      The combustion of any of the fuels delineated in item 1 of this item or of a mixture of any of these fuels with any other materials, for the purpose of generating heat, mechanical power, electricity, including cogeneration, or other useful forms of energy;

                  (ii)      The conversion of any facility to utilize any of the fuels delineated in item (i)1 of this item;

                  (iii)      The expansion or improvement of any facility that increases the capacity or efficiency of that facility to use any of the fuels delineated in item (i)1 of this item;

                  (iv)      The acquisition and installation of machinery and equipment for use in any facility delineated in items (i), (ii), and (iii) of this item; and

                  (v)      The acquisition of land for any facility delineated in items (i), (ii), and (iii) of this item;

            (5)      The purchase, construction, or installation of machinery, equipment, or a facility for utilizing groundwater as a heat source for a heating system or as a heat sink for an air conditioning system;

            (6)      The purchase, construction, or installation of machinery, equipment, or any facility for the development and use of natural heat of the earth or the energy in whatever form below the surface of the earth present in, resulting from, or created by or which may be extracted from this natural heat to provide useful energy in the form of heat for direct use or for generation of electricity;

            (7)      The purchase, construction, and installation of a hydroelectric facility that is located at the site of an existing dam, which facility uses the water power potential of the dam and which facility has not more than 30,000 kilowatts of installed capacity;

            (8)      (i)      The construction of any fuel production facility for the purpose of commercial production of a gaseous, liquid, or solid fuel, or of a combination of these fuels, which can be used as a substitute for petroleum or natural gas, or any derivatives thereof, including chemical feedstocks, and which is produced by chemical or physical transformation of coal or mixtures of coal and other materials. The project may include only:

                        1.      The fuel production facility, including the equipment, plant, machinery, supplies, and other materials associated with the fuel production facility;

                        2.      The land and mineral rights required directly for use in connection with the fuel production facility;

                        3.      Any other facility or equipment to be used in the extraction of a mineral for use directly and exclusively in the fuel production facility:

                        A.      Which is colocated with the fuel production facility or is located in the immediate vicinity of the fuel production facility or, if not colocated or located in the immediate vicinity, is incidental to the project, except in the event of a coal mine where no other reasonable source of coal is available to the project; and

                        B.      Which is necessary to the project; and

                        4.      Any transportation facility, electric power plant, electric transmission line, or other facility:

                        A.      That is for the exclusive use of the project;

                        B.      That is incidental to the project; and

                        C.      That is necessary to the project, except that a transportation facility used to transport fuel produced by the facility away from the project shall be used exclusively to transport the fuel to a storage facility or pipeline connection to an existing pipeline or processing facility or to an area within close proximity of the project;

                  (ii)      The conversion of any facility from the use of petroleum-based fuel to the use of coal or to the use of a mixture of coal and other materials as a fuel; or

                  (iii)      The construction of a facility for the combustion of coal utilizing innovative technology for increasing the efficiency of the combustion process.

      (m)      "Export-related financing transaction" means financing provided to a State manufacturer of goods, or a State seller of goods or services, where the goods or services are intended for sale to a foreign entity.

      (n)      "Facility" or "facilities" means any facility or facilities within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act and any energy project.

      (o)      "Facility applicant" means any facility applicant within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act.

      (p)      "Facility user" means any facility user within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act.

      (q)      "Financial assistance" means any financial assistance provided by the Authority under this subtitle.

      (r)      "Foreign entity" means a person, business association, or corporation located outside the United States, or a governmental unit of a country other than the United States.

      (s)      "Industrial building" means any building, other than a commercial building or a residential building, that:

            (1)      Is used primarily to carry on a business, including any nonprofit business;

            (2)      Is used primarily for an industrial process; and

            (3)      Provides a method of controlling energy usage within its exterior envelope but, as designed, does not have a peak design rate of energy usage of less than 3.5 B.T.U. per hour per square foot or 1 watt per square foot of floor area.

      (t)      "Industrial Development Fund" means the Fund created by § 5-914 of this subtitle.

      (u)      "Industrial process" means:

            (1)      A process used to produce or manufacture goods or products; or

            (2)      The storage or shipment of materials, goods, or products.

      (v)      "Linked Deposit Program" means the Program created by § 5-927 of this subtitle.

      (w)      "Municipality" means a municipal corporation subject to the provisions of Article XI-E of the Constitution of the State.

      (x)      "Property" means any real property or personal property.

      (y)      "Public body" means any public body within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act.

      (z)      "Public port" means any public port within the meaning indicated in the Maryland Economic Development Revenue Bond Act.

      (z-1)      "Qualified distressed county" has the meaning stated in § 5-1401 of this title.

      (aa)      "Retail establishment" means any establishment selling goods or services to the ultimate user or consumer of those goods or services, not for the purpose of resale, but for that user's or consumer's personal rather than business use.

      (bb)      "Secretary" means the Secretary of Business and Economic Development.

      (cc)      (1)      "Solar energy project" means, with respect to any commercial or industrial building, any addition, alteration, or improvement that is designed to use wind energy, energy produced by a wood-burning appliance, or solar energy, either of the active type based on mechanically forced energy transfer or of the passive type based on convective, conductive, or radiant energy transfer, or some combination of these types, to reduce the energy requirements of the building.

            (2)      "Solar energy project" includes a solar process heat device, solar electric device, or any earth sheltered building in which the sheltering substantially reduces the consumption of energy by the building.

      (dd)      "Transaction" means any transaction with respect to which financial assistance is or will be provided by the Authority under § 5-918 of this subtitle.