By the end of the year, motorists will notice big changes at Midway Mini Mart in Happy Valley.

The convenience store last week began installing 40 solar panels on the roof, and a wind turbine — 59 feet from ground to blade tip — should be erected by Christmas, according to Jeff Arcel, president and chief executive officer of Mother’s Power, a Whitefish firm that offers renewable energy solutions.

Arcel helped store owners Dan Scheffer and Melody Watts get grant funding to pay for about 55 percent of the $155,000 investment. He also designed the system, installed it and will provide ongoing maintenance.

A grant through the Rural Energy for America Program, a 2008 Farm Bill initiative, will pay for a quarter of the cost, while a grant through the U.S. Treasury Department is covering another 30 percent of the cost.

The paperwork for the grants was “as thick as a phone book,” Scheffer said, but he said he’s excited about the potential to further reduce the store’s energy costs. Arcel helped the couple navigate the grant-writing process, which he admitted can be daunting.

“Dan and Mel are great friends and they’re true believers” in renewable energy, Arcel said.

Scheffer and Watts, who have owned the popular convenience store on U.S. 93 since 1987, have been on a quest in recent years to reduce their $2,000 monthly power bill.

They started with an energy audit from Flathead Electric Cooperative. By changing to energy-efficient light bulbs throughout the store and under the outside canopy and making the store’s cooling system more cost-effective, they shaved the monthly power bill to about $1,100 a month.

“We’ve done everything possible,” Scheffer said, pointing to motion detectors on the store’s eight coolers that shut off fans when the store is closed. “At night you don’t need pop to be cold. The fans start up again in the morning, and the pop doesn’t cool off that much during the night.”

The solar panels and wind turbine will reduce the store’s power bill by another 20 percent, Arcel said. The investment should pay for itself in anywhere from 10 to 20 years.

“People don’t believe solar will work in Montana,” he added, “but even on cloudy days [the panels] will kick out 30 to 40 percent of their rated output.”

The process is fairly straightforward. Photons from the sun release electrons in the panels, which can produce up to 9.6 kilowatts of power, in turn charging batteries.

A big plus for having a battery back-up system, Watts said, is that Midway Mini Mart will be able to pump gas even if the electricity is off for an extended period of time.

The system will incorporate net metering, allowing the store to offset the cost of power if the panels and wind turbine produce more electricity than the store uses.

Flathead County granted Midway Mini Mart a conditional-use permit to install the wind turbine. It will be the first commercial wind turbine in the Flathead Valley, Arcel said.

The 2.4-kilowatt turbine will start producing energy when the wind is 6 miles per hour. Such turbines need an average wind speed of 10 mph to be effective, Arcel said, and the convenience store is located between zone 2, an industry designation for areas with wind averages of 8 to 11 mph, and zone 3, with wind between 11 and 14 mph.

“We acknowledge there aren’t too many areas in the Flathead that have adequate, consistent wind, but this is a high point,” Arcel said, referring to the Happy Valley area.

Placing the turbine high in the air will allow it to capture wind coming from the west, across a ridge and over the wooded area where Forest Acres Mobile Home Park is located.

Midway Mini Mart was one of four Montana businesses or entities to win the Rural Energy grants. Other recipients included Simms Fishing Products in Bozeman, Big Sky Colony in Cut Bank and Schutter Brothers Farms in Manhattan.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the grant funding is an important part of the Obama administration’s plan to help rural small businesses conserve natural resources, “create more green jobs and lead us on the path to becoming an energy-independent nation.”

The Montana projects were among more than 900 renewable energy projects announced in September.

Arcel said small businesses should be aware that the government still has money available for this kind of renewable energy technology.

“This is where energy is going in the future,” Arcel said. “It’s the ability to make your own electrons and feed them into the grid.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.