Montana Solar Estimate

Electric cooperative

Solar with NorVal Electric Cooperative

NorVal Electric Cooperative members pay 11.5¢ per kWh and no demand charge; a typical home's solar pays back in about 16 years.

Not yet verified. NorVal Electric Cooperative does not publish a rate schedule online. The figures here are estimates pending the schedule; call the utility or upload a bill for your real price.

See the numbers for your address

At a glance

Energy rate
11.5¢/kWh
flat rate
Fixed charge
$40/mo
billed every month, solar or not
Demand charge
None
every offset kWh saves the full rate
Net-metering limit
10 kW AC
bank resets in April

Residential schedule effective January 1, 2026; 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 April, and anything left is forfeited to the utility.
  • NorVal 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

Net-zero system
8.3 kW
1301 kWh per kW per year
Installed cost
as low as$20,737
up to $25,345
First-year savings
up to$1,304
at least $1,142
Payback
as low as13.8 yrs
13.8–18.3 yrs at 2.7%/yr

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
$40 per month
Energy
11.50¢ all kWh
Net metering
Nothing published; common co-op pattern assumed. Confirm with the co-op.
Notes
Request the rate schedule or the 2025 Annual Meeting Handbook from the co-op (406-228-9351). A bill upload calibrates the estimate meanwhile.
Effective
January 1, 2026; checked November 1, 2026

Questions members ask

Does NorVal 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 April, and anything left is forfeited to the utility.
How big a solar system can I net-meter with NorVal Electric Cooperative?
Systems up to 10 kW AC qualify for net metering.
Does NorVal Electric Cooperative have a demand charge?
NorVal 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 NorVal 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 $1,142 to $1,304 in the first year, and pays back in 13.8 to 18.3 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 NorVal 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

NorthWestern EnergyMontana-Dakota UtilitiesLincoln Electric CooperativeLower Yellowstone Rural Electric CooperativeMarias River Electric CooperativeMcCone Electric CooperativeMid-Yellowstone Electric CooperativeMissoula Electric CooperativeBeartooth Electric CooperativePark Electric CooperativeBig Flat Electric CooperativeSheridan Electric CooperativeBig Horn County Electric CooperativeSoutheast Electric CooperativeSun River Electric CooperativeTongue River Electric CooperativeCity of Troy ElectricMission Valley PowerYellowstone Valley Electric CooperativeFergus Electric CooperativeVigilante Electric CooperativeRavalli Electric CooperativeFlathead Electric CooperativeGlacier Electric CooperativeHill County Electric CooperativeNorVal Electric Cooperative
NorVal Electric Cooperative's service territory (highlighted). Hover a region to see its utility.

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.

  1. Residential rate schedule: fixed charge, energy rate
    PLACEHOLDER: NorVal publishes no rate schedule online; figures set near its reported average (FindEnergy 15.65c/kWh all-in). Members pay a base charge and a daily-peak demand charge of unpublished size
    Effective January 1, 2026 · Checked November 1, 2026 · Not verified: placeholder figures
  2. Net-metering / distributed-generation policy
    Nothing published; common co-op pattern assumed. Confirm with the co-op.
    Checked November 1, 2026 · Not verified: placeholder figures
  3. Service territory on the map
    HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (U.S. DHS / Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Montana subset, 2020 vintage; boundaries are coarse at town edges
    Checked October 31, 2026 · Read from the primary source
  4. Worked example: production, installed cost, savings and payback
    Montana Solar Estimate engine: PVGIS/NSRDB-based production reference for Sidney (1301 kWh per kW per year after snow and orientation), installed-cost ladder (Montana cash-price range, Oct 2026), 2.7%/yr rate escalation and 0.5%/yr panel degradation
    Checked November 1, 2026 · Read from the primary source
  • NorVal Electric Cooperative does not publish a rate schedule online. The figures here are estimates pending the schedule; call the utility or upload a bill for your real price.
  • NorVal Electric Cooperative's net-metering terms are not published; the common Montana co-op pattern is assumed until confirmed.

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.