GREAT FALLS — On Monday morning, members of the Great Falls Development Alliance got together for the second day of their energy assessment to discuss their findings and recommendations.
“We think there are there are opportunities out there,” said Brett Doney, the president of the Great Falls Development Alliance. “We brought in consultants to take an independent look. They’re the experts, to see what are the opportunities, but also what are the constraints?”
The Development Alliance has worked closely with RMI, an independent nonprofit, for the past six months, and while Montana has always been an energy state, there is still room for growth.
“We have tremendous opportunity to utilize our wind, to utilize the sun, to utilize agricultural products, and other resources that are in the region to produce more energy,” Doney said.
Currently, Great Falls’ Energy is mainly in hydro, wind, and coal. However, there is room for improvement in wind and other areas like efuels and Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
“We have some issues, but we think the opportunities outweigh the the issues,” Doney said, “We just need to really dig in and work at it.”
Clean energy is in a boom, and the Development Alliance believes that investing more now will help down the road, becoming an energy transmitter.
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“We've seen some, some rapid increases in energy costs that we think we can address through more production of energy in Montana,” Doney said.
The Development Alliance will be using the findings to guide them in future investments.
“So we know if we pursue real market opportunities and we just get to work at it, not just GFDA but with all of our partners working together, we can attract significant investment,” Doney said.
You can learn more about the Great Falls Development Alliance here.
