Solar is becoming a large part of the
Canadian Energy Solution

Across Canada, home owners are adding solar panels to their roofs in order to save electricity and to
reduce their power bills. They are choosing to use their own solar energy first, and many homes meet
20-50% of their annual power needs from their rooftop system. They are choosing to use green
energy over nuclear and coal. Since prices for solar power in Canada have fallen dramatically over
the past 5 years, solar power systems are now affordable. Charge Solar is active in all Canadian
provinces and territories.
Ontario Net-Metering

Electricity consumers in Ontario may take advantage of the net-metering initiative with renewable energy generators up to
500kW or less. Net metering allows Ontarians to send excess electricity to the distribution system for a credit toward
energy costs. Once you’re connected to the distribution system, your local distribution company will continue to read your
meter just as they do now and then subtract the value of electricity you supply to the grid from the value of what you take
from the grid. What you’ll see on your bill is the “net” difference between these two amounts. Credits can be used up
within one year, any remaining credits after that are reset to zero (i.e. you give them away to the electrical company).

Important Notes:
Be advised that the rules make it much more difficult and expensive to connect systems over 10 kW to the grid. In
particular for residential use 10 kW of solar PV (it is the inverter size that counts) should be considered the practical
limit. In addition, many areas in Ontario are currently “grid constrained”. This means the (rather arbitrary) limit of 7% of
renewable sources set by Hydro-One and other electrical providers has been reached for large areas of the electrical
network, and no additional renewable energy systems will be allowed to connect to the grid in those areas.
In Canada, and around the world, solar generated electricity is becoming more and more popular. This is for good
reasons: The cost of PV modules has dropped more than tenfold in the past decade making solar panels not just
affordable but also cost-effective in offsetting the price of electricity. The value of reducing ones carbon footprint has also
risen drastically in recent years with climate change and the popularity of the “being greener”.
We try to keep this page up-to-date, but with so much happening in renewable energy in Canada some of the information
will inevitably no longer be accurate. If you know of any changes, please let us know so we can keep this page relevant.

Federal Incentives
Get them while they last! In some provinces the federal incentives are the only thing going, and as we know these are
only a change in government from disappearing again.
The Canada Greener Homes Grant
A $5,000 grant is available to home owners to make their house more energy-efficient, and this includes solar PV. The
process involves getting an energy audit done beforehand, which identifies areas of improvement (and that means you
have to inform the auditor that you are planning on adding solar PV), then implementing one or more of those
improvements, and finally a second audit that lists what has been done. Besides the $5,000, another $600 is available to
cover the costs of the energy audits.

In addition to the $5,000 grant, the federal government also makes an interest-free loan of up to $40,000 available for
energy efficiency upgrades, including solar PV! With a term of 10 years and 0% interest this is too good to pass up.