Electric cooperative
Solar with Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative
Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative members pay 7.40¢ per kWh and no demand charge; a typical home's solar pays back in about 23 years.
See the numbers for your address
At a glance
Residential schedule effective January 1, 2025; checked November 1, 2026. Sources.
What this means for solar
- Excess power is banked as kWh at the full retail rate and drawn down in later months. The bank resets in January, and anything left is forfeited to the utility.
- Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative has no residential demand charge, so every kWh solar offsets saves the full energy rate.
- Systems up to 10 kW AC qualify for net metering; above that, capacity would run without export credit.
A typical home: 900 kWh a month, gas heat
Best-case figures with the range shown; no federal credit for homes in 2026. Production reference: Sidney. Your roof, usage and heating change every number, which is what the estimate is for.
Full schedule and net-metering rules
- Fixed charge
- $25 per month
- Energy
- 7.40¢ all kWh
- Net metering
- Rate Class 9 Net Metering (10 kW or less, single-phase): same $25 facility charge and 7.4c/kWh; annual true-up zeroes any generation above self-use at the December billing (no payout); no extra charge or fee printed.
- Notes
- Cost-of-purchased-power adjustment clause; no fixed rider printed.
- Effective
- January 1, 2025; checked November 1, 2026
Questions members ask
- Does Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative pay for excess solar power?
- Excess power is banked as kWh at the full retail rate and drawn down in later months. The bank resets in January, and anything left is forfeited to the utility.
- How big a solar system can I net-meter with Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative?
- Systems up to 10 kW AC qualify for net metering.
- Does Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative have a demand charge?
- Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative has no residential demand charge, so every kWh solar offsets saves the full energy rate.
- What would solar cost and save for a typical Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative home?
- For a gas-heated home using about 900 kWh a month, a net-zero system is about 8.3 kW, costs roughly $20,737 to $25,345 installed, saves $735 to $839 in the first year, and pays back in 20 to 26 years at 2.7% a year rate growth. Your address gives a real figure in about a minute.
- What federal incentives apply in 2026?
- The 30% homeowner credit (Section 25D) ended for systems completed after December 31, 2025. Business-owned systems, including ranches, farms and rental property, still qualify for the 30% investment credit (Section 48E) and bonus depreciation when placed in service by the end of 2027; tax-exempt owners receive the 30% as a cash payment. Not tax advice.
- Where do these numbers come from?
- The rate figures are read from Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative's own published schedule and net-metering policy (linked under Sources), last checked November 1, 2026. The worked example runs the same engine as the estimator, using a production reference for Sidney and Montana installed-cost data. If you spot an error, email us and we will correct it.
Service area
Other Montana co-ops: Flathead Electric Cooperative, Missoula Electric Cooperative, Park Electric Cooperative, Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative, Ravalli Electric Cooperative, Fergus Electric Cooperative. All 26 utilities.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the documents below. We print the schedule’s effective date and the date we last read it; when a utility publishes nothing, we say so instead of guessing quietly.
- Residential rate schedule: fixed charge, energy rateEffective January 1, 2025 · Checked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Net-metering / distributed-generation policyChecked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Service territory on the mapChecked October 31, 2026 · Read from the primary source
- Worked example: production, installed cost, savings and paybackChecked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
Spot an error or a rate change? Email mtsolarestimate@gmail.com. How the estimate itself is built: methodology.
Your address, your numbers
Roof, usage and heating change everything above. The estimate takes about a minute and asks for no contact details.