Energy Production and Infrastructure Prince George’s County is served by three private electric utility companies: Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), and Southern Maryland Electric Company (SMECO). PEPCO, the county’s largest energy provider, generates approximately 40 percent of its electricity from coal, followed by 36 percent from nuclear power, 19 percent from gas, 5.5 percent from renewable energy sources and 0.5 percent from oil as of June 2012. PEPCO intends to generate 18 percent of its energy in Maryland from renewable resources by 2020. While renewable energy generation has been limited to date in the county, two noteworthy projects illustrate demand for alternative energy sources. Another form of energy infrastructure that has also been largely overlooked are plug-in electric vehicle charging stations.
Solar Panels
As part of the Maryland Energy Administration Project Sunburst Initiative, 2,600 solar panels were installed on the Severn Building at the University of Maryland College Park in 2011. During the same year, the Washington Redskins organization installed 8,000 solar panels in the FedEx Field parking lot meeting all of the facility’s power on nongame days and 20 percent on game days.
Challenges and Opportunities Land Consumption and Water Quality One of the county’s greatest challenges will be to reverse its development pattern and begin to redevelop areas around existing infrastructure, in particular near our 15 Metro stations. Greenfield development over the last century has resulted in a loss of approximately 112,000 acres of natural land to development. The current pipeline of approved, but unbuilt development threatens to worsen this trend. The pipeline contains 16,976 dwelling units, of which approximately 90 percent are located in greenfields. Accessible primarily by car, these areas will continue to contribute to county greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of forests and habitat areas, essential to maintaining the county’s biodiversity and biological integrity. The county’s current development pattern has also degraded many of the county’s streams and wetland ecosystems. The restoration of these environmental assets is constrained by the level of development surrounding them and by sobering fiscal realities. According to recent state-issued stormwater permits, the county must retrofit approximately 8,000 acres of impervious surfaces by 2017. This undertaking will require new stormwater controls on existing parking lots, buildings, and roadways.
Greenfield
A greenfield is an undeveloped area of farm or forest land or a site that has never been built on.
Maryland’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permits allow Prince George’s County to control pollution that comes from storm drains. It also stresses reducing pollution that comes off of roads, driveways, and rooftops, and requires the implementation of trash reduction strategies and environmental site design (ESD) for new and redevelopment projects to the maximum extent practicable. The permit is issued for five years.
Greening The Built Environment Much of Prince George’s County is currently developed, occurring at different periods of environmental regulatory requirements. Making currently developed and future growth places more sustainable in their design and operation is an important piece of implementing Plan 2035. Incorporating green building features into new and redevelopment can help to enhance indoor air quality, health, energy efficiency, adoption of renewable energy, water quality, water conservation, and reduce stormwater, the use of toxics, and waste among other factors.
One policy that is currently under development by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is the Accounting for Growth Policy. The goal of this new policy is to address the requirement that all other new pollutant loads (nonpoint source pollution) must be offset by securing pollution credits.
Natural Environment 127