Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) A few days after nine organizations asked state utility regulators to place sideboards on data centers, Montana’s governor announced he’s signed agreements to allow foreign businesses to explore data center projects in the state.
On Thursday, the Governor’s Office announced that Governor Greg Gianforte signed a memorandum of understanding with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to advance potential investments in data-center and power infrastructure projects in Montana, specifically southern Montana. The memorandum outlines how the two governments will cooperate as they “explore project feasibility and potential next steps,” according to the release.
“Montana offers affordable, reliable energy, a skilled workforce, and a welcoming environment for innovation,” Gianforte said in a statement. “This agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries marks another step forward in expanding Montana’s high-tech and energy sectors and creating more good-paying jobs for Montanans.”
From Oct. 19 to Oct. 25, Gianforte traveled to South Korea and Japan with representatives from Montana’s agricultural, manufacturing, photonics, and bioscience industries. In 2024, Korea was Montana’s second largest trading partner, purchasing more than $335 million in industrial machinery, coal, beef, and wheat, while Japan was the fourth largest, purchasing more than $265 million in exports including agricultural products, wheat, and coal, according to the Governor’s Office.
According to the release, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries representatives expressed strong interest in Montana’s reliable energy resources, access to transmission, and favorable business climate for large-scale infrastructure and technology investment.
“By building partnerships with innovative global companies like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, we’re strengthening Montana’s position as a hub for technology and energy investment,” Gianforte said in the statement.
But the nine organizations petitioning the Montana Public Service Commission don’t agree that Montana has sufficient reliable energy resources, at least not enough to supply power-hungry data centers. NorthWestern Energy has recently signed letters of intent to provide electricity to three data centers that would require up to 1,400 megawatts, twice as much as the load required for Montana’s existing customer base. In addition, NorthWestern Energy has refused to reveal how the build-out needed to supply that much energy would affect existing customers.
In the meantime, two other data centers are waiting in the wings, while another, Ardent Tech’s TAC data center, just withdrew because it couldn’t contract with NorthWestern Energy for the 600 megawatts it requires.
Data centers not only require huge amounts of energy, they also require significant amounts of water for cooling. Montana river basins are already drought-stricken, and many are closed to new water permits so there are questions about where the water would come from. Still, the 2025 Montana Legislature lowered the property-tax rate for data centers to incentivize development. Now, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is stepping into the fray to possibly build a data center for a foreign company.
So nine Montana organizations are asking the PSC to create a separate customer class for data centers that would require data centers to pay for the costs associated with generating the energy they require. This would ensure that NorthWestern Energy couldn’t offer deals to data centers for cheap energy while spreading the cost to other customers.
Shannon James of the Montana Environmental Information Center said now wasn’t a good time to be adding yet another potential data center with huge power demands, but it might be a positive if Mitsubishi’s investments in power infrastructure focused on solar and wind power, Montana’s cheapest options. James added that claims about data centers providing jobs are overblown. For example, when Apple created a $1 billion data center in North Carolina, fewer than 100 permanent jobs were created to monitor the computer systems, according to National Public Radio’s Planet Money.
The Montana Environmental Information Center is one of the organizations pressing the PSC to protect NorthWestern Energy’s ratepayers from paying for the huge demands of data centers.
“It would be better if they were able to pay the costs caused by them moving into our communities through the customer class, through a large-load tariff, so they are paying for the power they need and being able to move that power. They will definitely need transmission upgrades to be able to move these large loads,” James said.
Based on the fact that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has a nuclear energy division based in Charlotte, N.C., the company might ultimately try to generate its own nuclear power if it runs into the same problem as Ardent Tech did.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.