Montana solar leads

The solar resource at Billings

This page takes its sunlight figure from PVWatts, the model developed at NREL and now offered by the National Laboratory of the Rockies. Billings is Montana’s largest city in the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 estimates, and PVWatts gives it 4.69 kWh per square meter per day (checked October 9, 2026).

Method: PVWatts version 8 defaults, an open-rack array fixed at a 20-degree tilt facing due south, at the Census gazetteer point for Billings, with typical-year weather from the National Solar Radiation Database. Missoula, Kalispell or a steeper roof would read differently, so the figure compares states and is not an estimate for one home.

Montana’s net metering statute

Net metering in Montana comes from Title 69, chapter 8, part 6 of the Montana Code Annotated (2025 code, checked October 9, 2026). MCA 69-8-103(19) defines a net metering system as a solar, wind or hydropower facility of not more than 50 kilowatts, on the customer’s premises, running in parallel with the utility’s distribution system and intended mainly to offset the customer’s own use.

Under MCA 69-8-603, a month in which the system produces more than the home uses ends with a kilowatt-hour credit on the next bill. The customer picks January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1 as the start of a 12-month period, and any credit still unused at the end of that period goes to the utility without compensation. The statute has a temporary version and a version that takes effect on a contingency; both contain these two rules.

Two more sections shape the market. MCA 69-8-605 says the part does not apply to electric cooperatives organized under Title 35, chapter 18, so cooperative members follow their cooperative’s own terms. MCA 69-8-611 lets the Public Service Commission set a separate class and rates for customer-generators only in a general rate case that includes a cost-benefit study, and section 69-8-612 keeps customers who interconnected earlier in their original class unless they choose to switch.

How Montana tax law treats home solar

One state tax provision applies to home solar today. MCA 15-6-224 exempts part of the appraised value of a capital investment in a recognized nonfossil form of energy generation from property tax for 10 years after installation: $20,000 for a single-family dwelling and $100,000 for a multifamily or nonresidential building (2025 code, checked October 9, 2026). Section 15-32-102 lists solar energy among the recognized nonfossil forms.

The former income tax credit for installing an alternative energy system, MCA 15-32-201, was repealed by section 64 of chapter 503, Laws of 2021, and the 2025 code shows it as repealed. How the exemption applies to a particular property is a question for the county assessor or a tax professional.

Montana counties by owner-occupied detached homes

The ten Montana counties with the most owner-occupied single-family detached homes, with owner-occupied homes and the detached share, from the ACS 5-year 2020-2024 county table B25032. These are housing counts only; they do not show where leads come from.

The ten counties hold 194,655 of Montana’s 267,917 owner-occupied detached homes in the 2020-2024 ACS, about 73%. Gallatin County, around Bozeman, has the lowest detached share of the ten at 78.6%, and Silver Bow the highest at 90.5%.

What Montana solar buyers filter on

Montana solar buyers usually limit requests by a few lead fields, each linked to a fact on this page:

• Homeowner status: an owner signs for the system and claims the property tax exemption; the owner-occupied detached count is above.
• Project type: the general kind of solar project requested; exact choices are set when the solar form is final.
• Timeframe: whether the homeowner wants to install this season or is still researching.
• ZIP code: the ZIP codes a buyer’s installers can drive to from their base.

The filters for Montana solar leads are agreed with each buyer during onboarding. Exclusive or shared routing for solar leads is agreed with each buyer during onboarding. The fields are shown on a sample solar lead.

Request Montana solar leads

Email us the Montana ZIP codes you cover, your daily volume or caps and how you take delivery. ReturnReturnA buyer's request for credit on a lead that fails agreed standards, such as a disconnected number, a duplicate or a lead outside the filters. Glossary terms are agreed on the onboarding call, before you go live.