by Micah Drew, Daily Montanan

The Montana Legislature last week approved a bill to boost private community solar projects across the state. 

Shared solar projects are gaining momentum across the country with more than 44 states offering similar programs, according to Sen. Chris Pope, and in Montana through nine of the state’s rural electric cooperatives.

Pope, a Bozeman Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 188, laying out requirements for shared solar projects and how they will connect with the state’s public utilities.

Shared solar projects allow individuals who cannot put solar panels on their own property or business to invest in, and benefit from, solar energy.

Community solar projects are “a small but meaningful part of an all-of-the-above energy approach that’s embraced by our governor and frankly, which is needed, as we know in this committee and in Senate Energy, it’s needed by Montana’s quickly growing electric grid,” Pope told the House Energy, Technology, and Federal Relations Committee on March 24. 

The bill creates a framework for developers to build a solar facility that generates between 50 kilowatts and five megawatts and sell the generated electricity to subscribers located within the service area. Subscribers would receive a monthly bill credit proportional to their share of the project. 

The bill passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support, including a final 46-4 vote in the Senate during the weekend. 

In both the Senate and House committee hearings, more than a dozen groups and individuals testified in support of the legislation, while NorthWestern Energy and Montana-Dakota Utilities, Montanan’s largest utilities, opposed the bill. 

SB 188 opens up community solar to individuals who are unable to tap into the solar market otherwise, proponents said, such as those who rent their homes or live in apartment complexes. It also expands opportunities for those who develop solar arrays, including public-private partnerships, individuals such as farmers and ranchers, and can make use of underdeveloped property. 

“These programs provide energy cost savings for households and businesses without needing to install the system on site,” Matthew Hargarten, vice president of government and public affairs at the Coalition for Community Solar Access, said during the house committee hearing. His organization represents more than 130 businesses nationwide that have invested in more than 2,000 shared solar projects. 

“The reality is there’s a lot of research and numerous cost-benefit analyses from around the country that smaller projects bring benefits to the entire electric grid and stabilize long-term cost for all ratepayers,” he said. 

However, Alan Olson, director of government affairs for Northwestern Energy, said he didn’t believe the bill offered a “happy outlook.” 

He, and the representatives of Montana-Dakota Utilities, stated they’d prefer shared solar projects operate as qualifying facilities — an existing program for small-scale generators to use the utility-scale infrastructure. Those projects are regulated by the Public Service Commission.

Olson also brought up concerns over the administrative cost burden utilities would have to bear by keeping track of community solar subscribers; but a House amendment to the bill shifted that responsibility onto the shared solar facility owners. 

Justin Pearce, CEO of A-Team Roofing & Solar in Billings, said the bill would be an economic boon to Montana. 

His veteran-owned company employs 27 people just in their solar department, a number he expects will grow to more than 50 by the end of the year. 

“You might not know this, but Billings has 285, what they call, sun days a year. Phoenix, Arizona, only has 283,” Pearce said. “Energy production in Montana is really good in the solar world. I feel this is one more piece of energy dominance for the state of Montana. So jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Senate Bill 188 was also supported by more than a dozen groups including the Montana Farmers Union, Northern Plains Resource Council, the Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy’s, and the Montana Environmental Information Center,

“This is a happy bill,” Pope told the house committee. “And everyone benefits.”

Fifty-four representatives supported SB 188 on third reading in the House and all but four Senators supported the bill in its final Senate vote.

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