# Economic Development (GEC)

## Title 5. Economic Development and Financial Assistance Programs

### Subtitle 4. Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority

#### Section 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 subparagraph.

    (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.

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Md. Code Ann., Econ. Dev. (as displayed at mgaleg.maryland.gov, October 16, 2026)