Energy Tours

AERO’s annual energy tours highlight energy conservation practices and renewable energy projects that make sense for home owners, small businesses, local governments, farmers, and ranchers. See wind turbines, solar panels, and efficiency projects up close. Talk to renewable energy dealers and installers. Learn how to finance energy projects with grants, loans, and tax credits. Meet people who are excited about conservation and renewable energy.

2011 Tours

AERO’s 2011 Energy Tours were organized with the support of NorthWestern Energy, the Department of Environmental Quality, SolarPlexus, Sundance Solar Systems, the Montana Renewable Energy Association, and Carbon County Resource Council.

Solar panels on Townsend Public School

Highlights: Our Townsend Energy Tour featured a variety of energy efficient retrofits and renewable energy systems undertaken by the Townsend School District. The school has a biomass boiler to burn wood pellets as part of the Fuels for Schools program through the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. And last year they installed a 2.4 kilowatt wind turbine as a part of the Wind for Schools Program. The tour included a grid-tied solar array and a number of cost and energy saving retrofits within the school, including upgrades in lighting and windows.

September 8, 2011

Co-hosted by Carbon County Resource Council

Tour of greenhouses at Cafe Regis

Highlights: Our Red Lodge Energy Tour highlighted several leaders in the community. The City of Red Lodge wastewater treatment plant has installed money-saving aeration blowers for its sewage lagoons as well as a photovoltaic solar panel system funded with federal stimulus funds in the forms of grants and low-interest loans. Red Lodge Ales has also taken advantage of incentive programs to “green” their brewery, which includes solar hot water and a free-air system for cooling. Not only are they brewing beer, but also brewing biodiesel to fuel their delivery trucks. We also visited Cafe Regis and a private residence that has used passive solar design and uses water from lawn irrigation to cool the home.

Philipsburg

One of Philipsburg's municipal hydroelectric systems

September 21, 2011

Highlights: In the Flint Creek Valley we toured a mix of municipal, residential and commercial renewable energy projects. This tour featured the biomass boiler at the Philipsburg school, followed by Philipsburg’s municipal hydro-power system which generates electricity for the city. We then traveled to Hall, MT where we learned about solar shingles on a private home and solar hot water used to wash wool at Sugarloaf Wool Mill. There was a brief seminar highlighting grants, loans, tax credits and rebates that help pay for renewable energy projects and energy conservation upgrades.

Earth-bermed home with small wind and solar systems

Highlights: We visited an earth-coupled home to learn about passive solar building techniques and saw home wind and solar renewable energy systems. We also visited MSU-Great Falls to learn about their 50KW wind turbine and how it is incorporated into the curriculum. The tour included a presentation on the Great Falls Armed Forces Reserve Center and their 58kW solar array.