2013 Maryland Code
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
§ 5-445 - Energy project -- In general

§5-445.

(a) (1) In this section the following words have the meanings indicated.

(2) (i) “Renewable fuel” means gaseous, liquid, or solid fuel from any organic matter and its by-products.

(ii) “Renewable fuel” includes fuel from:

1. an agricultural crop, agricultural waste, or agricultural residue;

2. wood, wood waste, or wood residue;

3. animal waste;

4. aquatic plants;

5. sewage or sewage sludge;

6. municipal, industrial, or commercial waste;

7. any mixture of any of these substances with inorganic refuse from a public or private municipal waste collection system or similar disposal system; or

8. any combination of items 1 through 7 of this item.

(iii) “Renewable fuel” does not include fossil fuel.

(3) “Transportation facility” means a transportation facility that is used exclusively to transport fuel produced by a fuel production facility to:

(i) a storage facility;

(ii) a pipeline connection to an existing pipeline or processing facility; or

(iii) an area near the fuel production facility.

(b) A project qualifies as an energy project if it consists of:

(1) an energy conservation project;

(2) a solar energy project;

(3) the construction of a facility to produce solar energy equipment;

(4) the construction of a facility or portion of a facility to:

(i) produce renewable fuel; and

(ii) burn renewable fuel, or a mixture of renewable fuel with other materials, to generate:

1. heat;

2. mechanical power;

3. electricity, including by cogeneration; or

4. other useful forms of energy;

(5) the conversion of any facility to use renewable fuel;

(6) the expansion or improvement of a facility that increases its capacity or efficiency to use renewable fuel;

(7) the acquisition and improvement of equipment for use in a facility specified in items (4) through (6) of this subsection;

(8) the acquisition or improvement of land for a facility specified in items (4) through (6) of this subsection;

(9) the purchase, construction, or installation of a facility or equipment to use groundwater as a heat source for a heating system or as a heat sink for an air conditioning system;

(10) the purchase, construction, or installation of a facility or equipment to develop and use the natural heat of the earth for direct use or to generate electricity;

(11) the purchase, construction, and installation of a hydroelectric facility at an existing dam that:

(i) uses the water power potential of the dam; and

(ii) has no more than 30 megawatts of installed capacity;

(12) the construction of a fuel production facility for commercial production of a gaseous, liquid, or solid fuel, or of a combination of them, that:

(i) is produced by chemical or physical transformation of coal or mixtures of coal and other materials;

(ii) can be used as a substitute for petroleum or natural gas, or any of their derivatives, including chemical feedstocks; and

(iii) includes only:

1. the fuel production facility, including the equipment, plant, 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 that is necessary to the project and is:

A. colocated with or located in the immediate vicinity of the fuel production facility; or

B. if not colocated or located in accordance with item A of this item:

I. a coal mine in the case that no other reasonable source of coal is available to the project; or

II. incidental to the project; and

4. any transportation facility, electric power plant, electric transmission line, or other facility that is:

A. for the exclusive use of the project;

B. incidental to the project; and

C. necessary to the project;

(13) the conversion of a facility from using petroleum-based fuel to coal or to a mixture of coal and other materials as a fuel; or

(14) the construction of a facility to burn coal using innovative technology that increases the efficiency of the combustion process.