Maryland's sole nuclear facility, Calvert Cliffs Clean Energy Center, generates approximately 40% of the state's total power. It also employs more than 800 full-time employees and generates $23 million in property taxes each year. Its operations supply electricity to more than 1.3 million homes, providing 80% of the clean energy across the state.
The best part? The operation is about to get even bigger, according to a press release from Constellation Energy, which owns and operates Calvert Cliffs. The company is investing nearly $100 million in a full-facility upgrade, including improvements to electrical systems and plant equipment, from valves to pumps to the 13-kilovolt transformer.
Company leaders emphasized the multifaceted benefits of this investment — for stakeholders, employees, renewable energy advocates, and, importantly, homeowners. Initial analyses have predicted at least a 10% increase in potential production from the upgrades.
"These upgrades will ensure continued safe and reliable operations and enable a potential renewal of the plant's operating licenses and a future increase in power output," Constellation explained in its press release.
"Constellation Energy's investment in Calvert Cliffs will grow Maryland's economy and create jobs for skilled trade workers across the state," explained Greg Akerman, the president of Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building Trades. "This investment will not only generate new opportunities, but it will also help secure the long-term future of the plant. … By committing to investments like this, Constellation Energy is securing a pathway to family sustaining jobs for the next generation."
While economists have recently become skeptical of the environmental, social, and governance movement and described it as a short-lived bubble, companies such as Constellation are proving that the clean economy is here to stay.
For example, India's explosive solar power growth saved its utility sector nearly $4.2 billion in 2024. Similarly, California saw 100 days in 2024 when its entire power grid was supplied by renewables for at least several minutes. Considering the state is the world's fifth-largest economy, this is no small feat. Rapid technological advances in hydrogen fuel cells are poised to bring that sector into the mainstream, continuing to diversify the clean energy economy and offerings.
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