Commercial & Industrial Grant Program

• Your business or nonprofit must be registered to do business in Maryland and in good standing. The supported facility must be in Maryland. Eligible uses include manufacturing, warehousing, data centres, offices, services, retail, hospitality, private schools and colleges, and multifamily buildings with at least five units. Other nonresidential uses are assessed case by case.
• You must own the facility or provide the landlord’s signed agreement permitting installation and keeping the improvements operational for their economic life, including after tenant turnover. For leased facilities, investment payback must be shorter than the remaining lease. Failure to maintain the permission and equipment conditions requires return of grant funds.
• Federal agencies and General Services Administration properties, public K–12 schools and local governments are excluded. So are homes or buildings with four or fewer residential units, enterprises in residential dwellings, and buildings with residential utility meters.
• The low-income route is for nongovernmental nonprofit facilities with more than half their clientele living at or below 80% of HUD’s Maryland median family income. The facility must directly benefit the public and demonstrate this clientele. MEA examines its mission, energy use and operating hours: if the purpose and operations would be unchanged with fewer than half its clientele on low incomes, use the general route. Applicants should show predominantly low-income service, but the footnote sets no fixed minimum proportion of floor space or operating hours; documentation quality affects scoring.
• Improvements must save energy compared with existing equipment or minimum code/standard alternatives. New industrial process equipment requires a technical comparison showing its energy efficiency against conventional alternatives. Thermal improvements in facilities using multiple energy types must consider electricity and other fuels together, displace fossil-fuel equipment and deliver net savings.
• Vehicles, mobile equipment, solar and other renewable generation, energy storage, mechanical insulation and building recommissioning are excluded. Ordinary repairs to existing equipment and surplus fixtures or equipment bought as inventory for future use are also excluded; the limited fossil-equipment repair exception is explained below. Bypassable building automation controls are excluded; controls indispensable to delivering heating, cooling or industrial process work can qualify.
• Fossil-fuel expansion, replacement or life extension is normally excluded. Basic health/safety or efficiency repairs that do not significantly extend equipment life can qualify as part of wider work reducing or eliminating fossil use, particularly in multifamily projects. Limited technical exemptions cover new combined heat-and-power installations and existing upgrades where electrification or zero-emission alternatives are infeasible. These require written technical justification and consideration of practical emissions mitigation; cost savings alone do not qualify. Fossil replacements or significant life extensions cannot count toward matching funds.
• Do not commit to procurement of the funded energy work before the grant agreement is ratified. Unrelated site preparation or structural construction already underway does not itself disqualify an uncommitted energy scope. The audit/study exception above is the pre-agreement reimbursement exception.
• Before construction, historic-preservation clearance must be documented. The general terms require at least 80% of worksite workers to live in Maryland or within 50 miles of its borders, and third-party liability cover of at least $1 million per occurrence or an accepted self-insurance equivalent; MEA may agree a written insurance waiver or modification.
• The agreement requires certification that the organization, its officers and directors, and people substantially involved in contracting or fundraising are not suspended or debarred from public contracting or subject to the cited Maryland debarment rule. The organization must not be in default on financial obligations to the State or MEA.

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30 ian. 2026 · 15:00:00 UTC-05:00

Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare

• Closed FY26 intake. Prospective FY27 applicants should watch the official program page for updates.[^c2][^c26]

The FY26 deadline was 3pm Eastern Time on 30 January 2026. That round accepted completed application packages by email to ci.mea@maryland.gov, including a consolidated scope of work and supporting cost and energy documentation. The official program page reports that FY26 agreements are being distributed to awardees and asks prospective FY27 applicants to watch for updates. Visit that page for the next announcement.

Awardees must return the executed agreement within ten business days of its electronic transmission unless MEA approves an extension. The reporting form provides an interim report and partial reimbursement request at 50% scope completion and a final report and remaining reimbursement request at 100%. Submit reimbursement requests within 60 days of project completion unless MEA approves an extension. Keep expense and project records, and make the worksite available, for at least three years after final reimbursement. Ineligible expenditure or breach of the grant conditions can lead to withheld payment or repayment.