Hi,

Anyone have any experience with Solar PV and net-metering here in Canada (especially in the Maritime Provinces)? Would love to hear if this was a good investment or not.

Thanks.

We did some years ago but NS Power is a pain. What province are you in?

Nova Scotia

The folks are in Mahone Bay.

AFAIK, an electrician who has taken some courses and has had an approval from NSPower can install panels and hook it up only as a net metered system but NSP had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even allow net metering. I know that with wind systems, in the past, the turbines had to be bought through NSPower but I'm not sure about PV. I will ask some solar guys I know.

They advertise the service on their site:

http://www.nspower.ca/en/home/environment/renewableenergy/enhanced/default.aspx

Even in Ontario and Quebec... how happy are your customers who went with PV?

Well, I get referrals so that tells something. In Ontario PV really is a no brainer even though, where I am, many houses have some tree shading issues and their ROI is a bit less than ideal, typically between 9-12%.

We are different because we offer the PV-Thermal panels now (locally only for the time being), and can include heat pumps which is a different market than PV only.

Back to the thread, I've seen the NSpower paper and none of the utilities, Hydro One in Ontario included, want to allow self generation. They love their power monopoly and not used to sharing so the gradual democratization of the grid is hard to swallow.

In a Net metering environment, you must really want to do it with the only incentive is banking some credits (and the possibility of a whole house UPS as well). I would still do it in NS because power is mostly coal and that is a dumb way to make power when there is so much wind and solar available.