Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Montana
7 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Montana, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in Montana?
By former use, the list includes 3 coal, 3 hydroelectric, 1 mine. Recorded retirement dates run from April 2013 to September 2023, with 5 retirements in 2015 or later. 6 of 6 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Montana compare with other states?
Montana ranks 48th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (997 MW) it ranks 38th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 2,542 scored datacenter candidate sites, averaging 54.3 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Montana are these sites?
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Montana
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colstrip | coal | 716 MW | 2020-01-01 | Rosebud |
| J E Corette Plant | coal | 173 MW | 2015-03-01 | Yellowstone |
| Lewis & Clark | coal | 50 MW | 2021-03-01 | Richland |
| Rainbow (MT) | hydro | 37 MW | 2013-04-01 | Cascade |
| Hauser | hydro | 12 MW | 2023-09-01 | Lewis and Clark |
| Madison Dam | hydro | 9 MW | 2019-10-01 | Madison |
| Zortman-Landusky Mine | mine | 0 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Montana?
GridCensus lists 6 retired power plant sites in Montana from EIA-860 retirement records. 6 have a recorded retirement date, 5 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Montana?
Colstrip in Colstrip is the largest by recorded capacity, at 716 MW. It is followed by J E Corette Plant (172.8 MW) and Lewis & Clark (50 MW).
Which power plant in Montana retired most recently?
Hauser has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, September 2023, with 12.3 MW of capacity.
Which county in Montana has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Rosebud County has the most, with 1, followed by Yellowstone County with 1.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Montana have completed cleanup?
1 of the 1 EPA-tracked sites listed for Montana are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Montana, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Montana· 2,542 sites
- Electric substations in Montana· 149 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in North Dakota· 8 sites
- Brownfield sites in Idaho· 6 sites
- Brownfield sites in West Virginia· 9 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Hampshire· 4 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in Montana”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/montana (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in Montana is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.