The Maryland Energy Administration has renewed its Decarbonizing Public Schools Program and is accepting applications.

An evolution of the FY22 pilot program, the Decarbonizing Public Schools Program offers grant funding to school districts to expand their capacities for managing energy data, reduce operating costs, and incorporate energy performance criteria into capital improvement planning. Overall program funding for FY23 is $1.8 million, allocated from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund.

The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), in partnership with the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC), established the program to help Local Education Agencies develop capacity and advance strategies for promoting clean and efficient energy use within their portfolio of current and future K-12 schools and support facilities.

According to an MEA press release, the program seeks to provide technical assistance to adopting two high-performance energy principles:

One is energy data management, which provides a diagnostic pulse on energy use and expenses. The second is net zero energy facility design, which involves technologies that would allow a school facility to use a volume of energy that is equal to or less than the energy that it generates onsite through efficiency combined with clean energy technologies such as solar, geothermal or combined heat and power.

The program application deadline is Friday, December 16, 2022, 5:00 p.m.

Learn more about the program and view application materials.