Transitioning Our Community's Power Supply

On April 3, 2019, the Missoula County Commissioners and the Missoula City Council adopted a joint resolution that establishes a goal of 100% clean electricity for the Missoula urban area by 2030. As part of this effort, the city and county are working with NorthWestern Energy, the Cities of Bozeman and Helena, and community partners to increase the supply of renewable energy and decrease demand via energy efficiency. Missoula County is also active at the state level on issues of energy policy and regulation that have implications for our ability to achieve 100% clean electricity. 

Memorandum of Understanding with NorthWestern Energy

NorthWestern Energy supplies 95% of the electricity consumed in the Missoula urban area. Following the adoption of 100% clean electricity, the city and county entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NorthWestern Energy. The MOU, signed in June 2020, committed the three parties to work together to advance the clean electricity goal and requiring them to jointly develop an Implementation Plan that identifies specific projects and programs to be pursued along with timelines for each. 

In the summer and fall of 2020, staff of the three parties to the MOU held numerous meetings, many of them including outside subject matter experts, to identify projects and programs to be included in the Implementation Plan. The Draft Implementation Plan was released in February 2021 for input from the public. The city and county recognized when releasing the draft plan that "this Implementation Plan will not, on its own, achieve our 100% clean electricity goal. We remain committed to that goal and will actively seek additional partners and opportunities to achieve it." See the Resources section on the right-hand side of the page for the Draft Implementation Plan and a summary of comments received. 

Interlocal Agreement

Missoula County has established an Interlocal Agreement with the Cities of Missoula, Bozeman and Helena to guide our joint effort to develop a Renewable Rate Option for NorthWestern Energy customers, with the goal of spurring the development of new, large-scale renewable energy projects in Montana. 

Distributed Renewable Energy 

Missoula County is also pursuing opportunities to install renewable energy on county-owned facilities.  In November 2021, the County completed installation of the largest rooftop solar array in the state at the County Detention Facility. Click here for Frequently Asked Questions about the Detention Facility solar project. Missoula County also works with community partners to assist citizens interested in installing solar energy. Resources for homeowners and business owners can be found on our Solar Energy page.

Energy Efficiency

Missoula County is committed to pursuing energy efficiency alongside renewable energy, recognizing the need to decrease energy demand as well as increase clean energy supply. To advance this work, Missoula County is a partner with Climate Smart Missoula and the City of Missoula in the Building(s) for the Future initiative. Building(s) for the Future aims to make Missoula homes and buildings healthier, more affordable, more comfortable, and more energy efficient. As part of this effort, we recently launched Electrify Missoula!