Community Solar Program

Community Solar Program

Community solar has existed in Maryland since 2015 due to the passing of House Bill 1087 and its Senate Bill counterpart SB 398 which required the Commission to develop a Community Solar Pilot Program. The Pilot Program was codified into Maryland Regulations through Commission Rulemaking 56 (RM56) establishing COMAR 20.62 on Community Solar Energy Generating Systems. Various updates to these regulations have been made via RM56 throughout the lifetime of the Pilot Program. Each of the participating electric companies has developed a community solar tariff on file, and is the entity responsible for performing the interconnection required to bring a project into operation with the electrical grid when the Community Solar provider has met the applicable requirements. 

Links to utility community solar programs and interconnection applications:

The Pilot Program officially ended its seventh and final year on December 31, 2024. Since the inception of the Pilot Program, there have been a total of 139 Community Solar pilot projects representing 204 MW of operating capacity for Maryland (data as of June 30, 2024).

In 2023, the Maryland General Assembly passed House Bill 908 which amended PUA 7-306.2 and established a permanent Community Solar program in Maryland to ultimately replace the existing Pilot Program. The establishment of the permanent Community Solar program led to many changes to the structure of Community Solar in Maryland, which is discussed in further detail below. With the passing of HB 908, the Commission was directed to develop 2 sets of regulations: 1) to establish provisions to implement the permanent program by January 1, 2025, and 2) to establish provisions to implement consolidated billing by electric companies for community solar by January 1, 2026. The drafting of these two sets of regulations has been undertaken by the Commission’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) Working Group. On April 22, 2024, the NEM Working Group Leader filed the final proposed regulations in the RM 56 docket to establish the permanent community solar program. The Commission held a final proceeding officially publishing the permanent program regulations on February 4, 2025. The NEM Workgroup is developing draft regulations to effectuate the consolidated billing mechanism following the issuance of Commission Order No. 91524. 

The Community Solar program will encourage private investment in Maryland’s solar industry and diversify the state’s energy resource mix to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act goals.

The community solar program:

  • Provides access to solar-generated electricity – in a manner similar to rooftop solar and net metering – for all Maryland customers without requiring property ownership;
  • Incentivizes solar companies to provide service to low- and moderate-income customers;
  • Attracts new investment in Maryland’s renewable infrastructure and green economy;
  • Allows renters to contract for solar energy; 
  • Includes significant consumer protections, including prohibition against unreasonable fees and clear contract disclosure requirements; and
  • Allows the Commission Staff to collect necessary data to study the impact on Maryland’s electricity grid over the program.

Individual community solar projects will be operated by subscriber organizations (which can include utilities, retail electricity suppliers, solar developers, etc.) that are approved by the Public Service Commission and the electric company serving the location of each project. Interested parties can submit an application to become a Subscriber Organization and operate a community solar project by submitting an application to the Commission available here. Please note: in order to e-file the subscriber organization application, it must be converted to a PDF. The template for the community solar contract disclosure form (along with instructions), can be found here. This application process has not changed with the implementation of the permanent program. On average, the time to process an application and receive a decision is 8-10 weeks.

The Maryland Energy Administration may offer grants for residential and commercial community solar subscriptions. More information can be found on MEA’s web site (energy.maryland.gov/)

For more information, please see Frequently Asked Questions.