Montana has plenty of wind to make energy: It's everything else that we're missing.

"It's one of the areas of huge potential, in this state and the northern Great Plains," Mike Carlson told a roomful of University of Montana students on Thursday. Carlson has been a wind advocate for years, and started his own private wind consultancy last year after retiring from a career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Mother Nature has done her job, but others have work to do, he said. Landowners need better data on how much wind blows for how long. The region needs more and better power lines to distribute the electricity produced. Power buyers need to be lined up, and the power sellers need to be ready to supply expensive spot-market electricity to their buyers on days the wind doesn't blow.

Then come the money questions. Investors were hot for wind energy in the past few years, but the last few weeks have made capital scarce. Beyond that, state and federal tax policies and incentives play a big role in keeping the wind energy market blowing.

The data question is getting answered, slowly, Carlson said. Wind-measuring equipment is getting better and cheaper, although a basic wind-speed gauge costs $300. That gauge and a couple other gizmos need to be put on a tall tower for several months to a couple years to get the numbers investors need before they agree to build a $2 million wind turbine.

Montana already has pretty good county maps showing areas of significant wind activity. State geographic information systems coordinator Stewart Kirkpatrick said he's looking for ways to make those maps better. After talking with Carlson, one idea was to overlay maps of wildlife migration routes over the wind channels. That might help soothe concerns about wind turbines killing birds or bats.

Who makes those maps is also important. Ashley Preston, UM College of Technology energy technology program director, said private companies often keep their study data to themselves. If the landowner does the research, he or she is in a better negotiating position when it comes time to bargain over turbine location.

And that's a big deal. Carlson said arrangements in eastern Montana typically include $1,000 a year per testing tower, simply to measure wind action. If a turbine is placed, the landowner can boost that to $5,000 or $6,000 a year per tower, depending on how much energy is produced.

It also means six or eight short-term jobs building the towers and two to four permanent jobs maintaining them.

"Understand, in some of our small towns, we go bananas to have five new jobs," Carlson said. Eastern Montana's economy has been declining for years, with agriculture its last remaining major employer. Many people hope the green potential of wind energy will give a boost to their livelihoods, without the attendant pollution and disruption of coal or petroleum development.

Preston said she wanted to help her students learn more about the state's wide range of needs and opportunities. The energy technology program trains them in basic techniques of solar, wind, micro-hydro, geothermal and conventional energy production.

"One of the reasons I wanted Mike to visit here was to exchange information between the eastern and western parts of the state," Preston said. "It's good to let folks know the constraints people in eastern Montana are operating under."