FAQ

No. It is closed. Natural Resources Canada lists the Canada Greener Homes Grant as closed, with 31 December 2025 as the last day to submit documents, and the Canada Greener Homes Loan as closed with no further applications able to be approved (Natural Resources Canada, Canada Greener Homes Initiative). The Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program remains open but it is aimed at low-to-median-income households and at energy efficiency retrofits. Do not accept a quote that shows a federal grant against a solar system in 2026.

Ontario's Home Renovation Savings programme, delivered by Save on Energy and Enbridge Gas and administered by the IESO. It offers up to $5,000 for solar panels at $1,000 per kilowatt and up to 50 per cent of total cost, and up to $5,000 for battery storage at $300 per kilowatt hour on the same 50 per cent cap (Home Renovation Savings, solar and battery storage). The condition attached to it is significant and is covered in the next answer.

No, and this is the single most important thing to understand before designing a system. The programme states that participants who receive an incentive for solar PV and battery storage are not eligible to participate in a net metering agreement with their local distribution company, because the incentives are provided for load-displacement projects only (Home Renovation Savings, solar and battery storage). The participant agreement requires repayment of the full rebate to the IESO within 30 days if you enter a net metering agreement at any time in connection with the measures installed (Home Renovation Savings, Solar and Storage Participant Agreement). You choose one route or the other.

Work it from your own bill rather than a brochure. As indicative arithmetic: a 10 kW array at $2.40 to $3.50 per watt is roughly $24,000 to $35,000, less up to $5,000 under the Ontario rebate. Installers here commonly model somewhere between 1,100 and 1,250 kilowatt hours per kilowatt per year, which would put annual production near 11,000 to 12,500 kilowatt hours. Valued at a blended 13 to 16 cents per kilowatt hour, consistent with the Regulated Price Plan prices effective 1 November 2025 (Ontario Energy Board, Electricity rates), that is roughly $1,500 to $2,000 a year, giving a simple payback somewhere in the ten to twenty year range before any rate escalation and before an inverter replacement. We could not read Natural Resources Canada's own per-location production figure for Ottawa, so treat the production assumption as the installer's claim and ask which software produced it.

No. Under Ontario's net metering rules credits can only be carried over to future bills for up to 12 months, after which they are reduced to zero, and they can only offset charges related to the electricity you consumed rather than other charges on the bill (Ontario Energy Board, Net metering). This is why an array should be sized to your annual consumption rather than to the available roof area.

Three parties with named credentials. A professional engineer licensed in Ontario, because the City requires the design and the on-site field review of a solar collector system to be done by one (City of Ottawa, Solar collector systems). A Licensed Electrical Contractor, because Ontario law requires that for hired electrical work. And the Electrical Safety Authority, which must receive a notification of work before the work begins and issue the Connection Authorization before your distributor energizes anything (Electrical Safety Authority, Notifications and inspections).