On a good note:

Project Sunburst, established in April of 2010, will produce more than 12,000 MWh of solar energy per year in Maryland.

To date, Maryland has awarded grantstotaling $10.6 million to 2,450 Maryland businesses and families,contributing 17,700 MWh  Maryland generated solar energy per year.

On the flip side:

The Wind Energy Act was not passed this past spring.  As you can see above, offshore wind is a large chunk of our energy future.

As Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network stated at theEnergy Summit, “Offshore wind builds jobs and helps with our land lossdue to climate change.  And, it brings manufacturing back to Maryland”.

“We have to do something about rate shock” said Governor O’Malley.  A representative from Pepco stated “the debt issue is a concern for theutility putting them in a risky position.  Pepco would have to spreadthe costs to both commercial and residential consumers”.

Clearly, there are challenges that need to be overcome regarding theOffshore Wind Act.  But, we don’t foresee this being taken off the table any time soon.

During the Energy Summit Governor O’Malley spoke about the progress that has been made in the solar industry.

Challenging the speakers, O’Malley quickly asked “what are we doing to accelerate that?”

To continue the growth the state needed to stay vigilant with theincentives.  Residential solar is a quick deployment and incentivesdrive residential change.

Another speaker mentioned the need for more defined guidelines on the pricing of SRECs, referring to New Jersey’s fast growing market withwidespread residential and commercial adoption.