Abundant, Affordable, Clean Energy (AACE) Act

The Abundant Affordable Clean Energy (AACE) Act (HB 398/ SB 316), is one of the Maryland Sierra Club’s legislative priorities during the 2025 Maryland General Assembly. The AACE Act will help increase Maryland energy production in ways that keep rates affordable and benefit the environment. Without action, Maryland will fall short of its clean energy goals and ratepayers will face increased costs for electricity.

This bill would support comprehensive actions to advance development of carbon-free energy in Maryland, improving our grid’s capacity and reliability. The bill would increase energy storage to promote clean energy; create a new set of solar energy credits to support both utility-scale and smaller projects; and support relicensing of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant to sustain this source of carbon-free energy in the near term. It would also make procurement for clean energy more competitive and efficient and establish new protections for ratepayers.

For more information, read through the Sierra Club factsheet!

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Abundant Energy - The AACE Act will increase energy generation in Maryland and the storage capacity of Maryland’s energy grid, which will decrease capacity prices and reduce the likelihood of outages, by:

  • Boosting in-state storage to meet peak capacity needs of the distribution and transmission networks by creating a market for battery storage projects. These steps would help Maryland meet its legislated goal for storage capacity.
  • Minimizing the risk of new fossil generation by providing funding equivalent to the current federal production tax credit, if necessary, to support the potential relicensing of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Facility in 2034 and 2036.

Affordable Energy - The AACE Act will protect ratepayers, make procurement for clean energy more competitive and efficient, and avoid expensive energy solutions by:

  • Amending the Alternative Compliance Payment mechanism and applying 75% of energy sales and franchise taxes from data centers to reduce electric rates.
  • Creating a 5% cap for the cumulative impact to ratepayers for net-metered solar.

Clean Energy - The AACE Act will bring more solar and wind projects online in Maryland, improving our grid’s capacity and reliability and helping to achieve Maryland’s near-term goals for clean energy generation, by:

  • Updating incentives for small solar projects.
  • Establishing competitive purchasing processes for utility-scale solar projects, land-based wind, and small hydro projects that protect ratepayers and create certainty for renewable developers.
  • Ensuring that transmission for offshore wind projects prioritizes serving Maryland load

The AACE Act is sponsored by Delegate Charkoudian and Senator Brooks and is supported by a broad coalition that includes environmental, faith, labor, industry, and ratepayer advocate organizations across Maryland. 

AACE Act Coalition Webpage

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