Solar Net Billing
Alberta’s Micro-generation Regulation allows customers generate their own renewable energy to power their home, farm or business and send the excess electricity back to the province’s electricity grid for a credit. You would still remain connected to the distribution system (grid), so you can obtain electrical power whenever it is required. This concept is called Solar Net Metering (Net Billing will be set up differently depending on your rate type and Wire Service Provider territory).
One of the major requirements states that your solar panels system size must not exceed the “rating of the customer’s service”, or, in other words, should match your own energy consumption.
You would get compensated in the form of credits (shown on utility bills and carried over for 12 months) and/or money (depending on your billing structure and local regulations).
Your local distribution company may also be responsible for connection costs, including supply and install of a bi-directional meter measuring electricity flowing from your solar panels to the grid, and from the grid to your property.
Residential and Commercial Solar Program
(*cancelled by the United Conservatives Government in May of 2019)
If you own a home in Alberta and were looking to install solar panels, you could receive 30% off your solar panels system cost up to a maximum of $10’000. The $0.75/watt solar rebate was based on the total installed capacity of your project.
Ground-mount or Rooftop residential solar panels systems were limited to 15kWp DC in size, which equals, for example, to 60 panels of 250 Watts each.
At the same time if you are a business or a non-profit organization in Alberta, your solar panels rebate could have reached 25% or $500’000, whichever was greater. Solar farms and arrays were limited to 5 MW in size. Rebate value was set at $0.75/watt as well.
If you are interested to learn more about the other incentives or solar subsidies programs currently available, fill out a Request Form and receive Free Quotes for your solar panels installation from solar contractors in your area!