Analysis of Maryland Renewable Portfolio Standard Policy Options

Maryland Climate Coalition
Project completed February 2016

Synapse analyzed various options for an enhanced Renewable Portfolio Standard for Maryland, on behalf of the Maryland Climate Coalition. Using a Synapse-adapted version of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), we modeled three alternative options through the year 2030 to determine how Maryland could meet an expanded policy cost-effectively. The modeling found that the economic conditions surrounding wind and solar installations would allow the state to meet an expanded RPS in all scenarios analyzed. In addition, analysis showed that the emitting renewable resources currently included in the RPS—such as combustion of industrial by-products—had little impact on meeting RPS policies and were also only minimally affected by the policies themselves.