Solar financing and grant writing
The federal credit is gone and solar still pencils out, because what you are buying is a rate that never goes up. Northstone writes the proposal first, with the real system and the real price for your property, and then puts every way of paying for it in front of you, in writing.
The federal residential credit has ended
The residential clean energy credit is not available for any system placed in service after December 31, 2025. Some sites still advertise it; we do not. What you buy solar for was never the credit. It is a fixed cost per kilowatt-hour that sits under the utility’s rate and never rises, and free power once the system is paid off. That math stands in 2026, and the proposal shows it.
How people pay for solar here
Northstone has worked with these lenders on installs in the Flathead. They set their own rates and terms. What Northstone does is put the same system in front of each one, so you compare real numbers instead of brochures, and the bill you already pay the utility becomes the payment on something you own.
If you own a home
Clearwater Credit Union
Runs an Energy Resilience Loan for solar, built for exactly this, and is the lender named in Northstone’s own proposals.
Clearwater’s solar loanWhitefish Credit Union
A local lender Northstone has worked with on solar installs.
Glacier Bank
A local lender Northstone has worked with on solar installs.
If you run a farm or a rural business
USDA REAP grant applications
Northstone has taken rural and agricultural customers through REAP applications and built the systems that followed, including the 78-panel array on Nelson’s Ace Hardware. USDA paused new grant awards in March 2026 while it rewrites the rules; guaranteed loans continue. Get the system designed now and the application is ready to file the day grants reopen.
The paperwork itself
Northstone writes the grant applications rather than handing you a form. That includes REAP for rural and agricultural projects, so the paperwork is one more thing you do not do.
The Montana state loan
The Alternative Energy Revolving Loan Program is run by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality: a low fixed rate, no down payment, and a term long enough to matter, open to homeowners and small businesses alike. Windows open every quarter and fill up; we tell you the next one.
Northstone helps prepare the application. DEQ decides eligibility, ranking and funding, and application windows are scheduled rather than guaranteed.
The Montana property tax exemption, which has not ended
A separate state provision from the loan, and one that still stands. For a set period after the install, part of the appraised value a solar system adds to your property is exempt from Montana property tax.
Set out in Montana Code 15-6-224 and applies to non-fossil generation equipment, including solar. You claim it with the Montana Department of Revenue; Northstone can point you to the form.
What Northstone does on the money side
Every system is a custom design for one property, which is why nobody here quotes a starting price. The proposal carries the real number, and these are the four things Northstone does with it.
The proposal
Northstone sizes the system to a full year of what the building actually uses, then puts the full project price, the production numbers, and the payback in writing.
The written comparison
The local lenders get compared against each other, and against paying without a loan, on the same system. In writing, so you can read it away from the kitchen table.
The state loan application
If the state loan suits the project, Northstone prepares the application to DEQ with you and files it early in the window. The decision is DEQ’s.
Grant writing
For rural and agricultural projects Northstone writes the grant applications, and checks where each program currently stands before you count on it.