Property Tax Credit for Nonresidential Solar on Certain Brownfields, Water Retention Ponds, or Quarries

This is a local-option credit, so it only exists where your county, municipality or Baltimore City has actually enacted it. The statute is permissive, not mandatory — check with your local taxing authority before counting on it.

§9–275 of the Tax–Property Article, Annotated Code of Maryland lets the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City, or the governing body of a county or municipal corporation, grant by law a credit against the county or municipal property tax imposed on a nonresidential solar energy generating system constructed on a brownfield, or on a water retention pond or quarry currently or previously designated for industrial use. Baltimore City appears by name because the city holds its own county-level jurisdiction.

The same section lets the local government set the amount and duration of the credit, additional eligibility criteria, and any other provision needed to carry it out. So the value and the terms vary by jurisdiction, and there is no statewide figure.

§9–275 was added by Chapter 458 of the Acts of 2025 (House Bill 1111), approved 13 May 2025 and effective 1 July 2025. The same Act made certain floating systems, and systems on water retention ponds or quarries previously designated for industrial use, eligible for the Small Solar Energy Generating System Incentive Program under §7–709.1 of the Public Utilities Article, and it amended the property tax exemption at §7–249 of the Tax–Property Article.

A separate exemption may apply instead of this credit. Under §7–249, nonresidential solar energy generating systems approved by the Public Service Commission on or after 1 July 2024 and constructed on building rooftops or parking facility canopies are not subject to valuation or to property tax at all. An exemption and a credit are different instruments, and which one reaches a given project depends on how and where it is built — another reason to ask your county rather than assume. See also Local Option — Property Tax Credit for Renewables and Energy Conservation Devices and Property Tax Exemption for Solar and Wind Energy Systems.

Verified against the Maryland General Assembly's own statute text for §9–275 and §7–249, and against the enrolled text of Chapter 458 of 2025, on 28 October 2026.