On April 24, 2008, Governor Martin O’Malley signed Senate Bill 209, which accelerates Maryland’s existing renewable portfolio standard to require that 20 percent of the state’s electricity supply come from renewable sources by 2022. The RPS had previously been expanded by SB 595 on April 24, 2007, to require that 2 percent of electricity come from solar power. SB retained the 2-percent solar carve out.
Sources of energy that count toward the standard include wind, qualifying biomass, methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials in a landfill or wastewater treatment plant, geothermal, ocean, including energy from waves, tides, currents, and thermal differences, a fuel cell that produces electricity from qualifying biomass or methane, and small hydroelectric power plants.
Press Release [1]
SB 209 [2]
Links:
[1] http://www.governor.maryland.gov/pressreleases/080424.asp
[2] http://mlis.state.md.us/2008rs/chapters_noln/Ch_125_sb0209E.pdf