New solar project in southwestern Montana will double solar production in state

Boise-based Clēnera told Montana Lee Newspapers recently that the company’s 600-acre solar array is in its final phase before launching within weeks.

The array located along U.S. Interstate 15 near Dillon it the second Montana project of this size and doubles the amount of commercial solar production in state.

“They have to run a bunch of tests to be sure everything is working right, but it should be producing by the end of June or July,” said Krista West, of Clēnera.

The Apex solar project will provide power to NorthWestern Energy. Utility-scale solar developments have faced years-long challenges securing contracts with Montana’s largest monopoly utility but have done so by using a 1978 federal law requiring regulated utilities to offer contracts for small renewable energy facilities that qualify. There have been successful lawsuits both against both NorthWestern and Montana’s Public Service Commission about the contract and pricing obligations required by the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act.

In 2019 the Montana Supreme Court backed a lower court ruling that Montana’s Public Service Commission had shortened solar contracts from 25 years to 15 and set prices to uneconomic levels, knowing the solar industry would be harmed.

Over 25 years, Apex should produce $15 million in tax revenue for Beaverhead County and $3.4 million for the state of Montana, according to Clēnera. Earlier, Clēnera indicated Apex would produce enough variable electricity to power 16,000 homes.

Apex is Clēnera’s first planned Montana project, though in 2020, it reached an agreement to build a 150-megawatt development for Basin Electric Cooperative in southeast Montana northwest of Baker. Construction on the Baker development, known as Cabin Creek Solar, was expected to start in 2022 or early 2023 but hasn’t taken place.

Friday, Clēnera said it had no comment on why the 1,100-acred Cabin Creek development wasn’t underway. Basin Electric Cooperative did not respond to interview requests placed over the last two weeks.

The largest solar project currently generating electricity in Montana is the 80-megawatt MTSUN array northwest of Billings, which like Apex secured a contract through PURPA.

A third, 80-megawatt solar project to be located near Trident is seeking a contract with NorthWestern Energy under PURPA. Developer Gallatin Power has petitioned the Montana Public Service Commission to set rates for the project, which would also be the first utility-scale project in Montana with battery storage.