Farm Energy Success Stories

Efficiency Plus Irrigation Program

This program of NorthWestern Energy offered irrigation system audits to NorthWestern Energy customers in Montana, and also funded selected energy-saving projects that irrigation customers proposed. NCAT conducted the audits, measuring flow rates, pressure, and the electrical consumption of a system, calculating the system's pumping plant efficiency, and making recommendations for cost-effective energy saving projects.

Montana Rivers Project

In the American West, irrigation takes a major environmental and social toll. For example, over 2,600 miles of river in Montana have been classified as "chronically dewatered," meaning that in most years stream flows do not provide adequate fish habitat. Over a seven year period (1997 to 2004), NCAT studied the causes of stream dewatering and tested innovative solutions. The Montana Rivers Project installed soil moisture monitors and promoted other water and energy-savings technologies at over 60 farms and ranches along the Jefferson, Boulder, Big Hole, Blackfoot, Beaverhead, Clark Fork, Ruby, Shields, and Yellowstone Rivers. NCAT also sponsored numerous workshops and educational events, was instrumental in creating the Jefferson River Watershed Council, and worked closely with many other local watershed groups in these river valleys.

Diverse project funders included the Fanwood Foundation; Ferguson Foundation; General Service Foundation; Greenville Foundation; Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks; Montana Power Company; Montana Trout Foundation; National Fish & Wildlife Foundation; Norcross Wildlife Foundation; Trout Unlimited; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Montana Rivers Project built a reputation for positive, collaborative, and respectful engagement, developing a model that can be applied in other regions of the Intermountain West where agricultural water use is an issue.

• The Montana Rivers Project Final Programmatic Report
  July 2001, [PDF/364KB]
• Water and Energy Conservation with the AM400 Soil Moisture Monitor
  June 2004, [PDF/489KB] and
• Installing and Using the AM400 Soil Moisture Monitor
  June 2004, [PDF/583 KB]

Montana AgSolar Project

Intuitively, Montana – with its strong agricultural sector set in one of the least-populated areas in the country – would seem to be an ideal candidate to embrace solar-electric technology. The short-term goal of the Montana AgSolar Project was to understand barriers limiting the agricultural uses and adoption of solar electricity in Montana Power Company's service region. In the longer term, the project aimed to increase the agricultural uses of solar-electric power in Montana and beyond.

NCAT installed demonstration solar-electric water-pumping projects at six locations in Montana, publicized these projects, and also conducted a study of the market potential of solar-electric technologies in the agricultural sector of Montana Power Company's service region. NCAT interviewed farmers, ranchers, equipment dealers, installers, utility representatives, and staff from local, state, and federal agencies.

While acknowledging many barriers to adoption, the project reached a generally optimistic conclusion about the potential for solar-electric technologies in the agricultural community. Solar water pumping can benefit ranching and the environment at the same time, when it reduces livestock pressures on riparian areas.

The project report includes case studies of all six demonstration projects, lessons learned, and results of the market research study.

• The Montana AgSolar Project: Expanding the Agricultural Uses of Solar Energy in Montana
  December 2000, [PDF/745KB]