Game Changer Competitive Grant Program

Program status: closed. The Maryland Energy Administration stopped funding this program on 1 July 2017.

Fiscal year 2017 was the last round, with applications due 1 December 2016. MEA made three awards that year — community resiliency hubs in Baltimore City, A F Mensah's grid-interactive smart homes in Pepco territory, and Power52's resiliency hubs in eastern Baltimore City — after three awards in fiscal year 2016, one in 2015 and two in 2014. MEA's program page carried a notice that funding was not available as of 1 July 2017 right up until the page was removed from its site.

The nearest thing MEA runs today is its Energy Challenge Grant Program, a competitive two-stage grant for innovative answers to a problem statement MEA sets each year. It is a separate program with its own terms, not a continuation of this one. MEA's full current list is on its grants and incentives page.

Who could apply: for-profit businesses, non-profit organisations and governmental entities operating in Maryland, with projects physically located in the state. This program was not open to homeowners.

Status verified against the Maryland Energy Administration's own current and archived program pages on 28 October 2026. The description below is kept for reference and describes the program as it operated while it was open; its figures are historical and are no longer available.

Historical program description (fiscal year 2016 terms)

Game Changer Competitive Grant Program is designed to support innovative renewable energy systems and strategies that advance the renewable energy market in the state. The program aims to mitigate costs and risks of developing new technologies and systems. MEA is interested in funding initiatives in its two Areas of Interest (AOI): i) technologies that reduce the cost or increase efficiency of Tier I renewable energy systems,  and ii) commercial, customer sited electric storage systems that are integrated with renewable energy resources.  

Eligibility

The program is open to any businesses in Maryland, including for-profit businesses, non-profits, and governmental entities. Projects must use commercially available technology and must be physically located in Maryland. 

Program Description

A total of $1 million is available for the program, with typical awards ranging from $50,000 to $250,000. The grant is limited to 30% of the project costs. Awards are intended to support cutting edge renewable technology projects that are “game changing” and are in their early stages of commercialization. Funding is not limited to renewable energy systems but also towards innovative project design ideas targeted towards increasing renewable energy systems, financing ideas, and overcoming barriers for renewable energy deployment.  Potential projects may include, but are not limited to:

• Hybrid solar photovoltaic/ thermal energy systems that cool the PV system while generating hot water
• Solar thermal heating and absorption cooling systems
• Low-maintenance solar photovoltaic array tracking systems
• Renewable energy generation and storage systems that could be aggregated for efficient transactions with independent operating systems for ancillary services
• District energy geothermal heating and cooling systems
• Biofueled distributed generation and/or combined heat and power systems
• Cost-competitive fuel cells that can add backup, peak-shaving and/or baseload
• Crowd funding platforms for renewable projects
• Innovative employer electric vehicle programs
• project to expand access to financing for renewable energy systems to underserved populations
• Projects that lower barriers to entry to new renewable energy financing partners in Maryland