Ontario solar rebate: why most homeowners are skipping it
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings solar rebate forces a choice against selling power to the grid. Here is what that means for your solar costs.
Ontario homeowners installing rooftop solar are mostly turning down the provincial rebate, because accepting it means giving up the ability to be paid for power sent back to the grid. That is the central finding of a recent report, and it changes how you should budget for a system.
What happened
According to the Toronto Star, Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program makes solar owners choose between the rebate and net metering, which credits households for exported electricity against their bills. Ontario is the only province with this either/or rule, the paper reports.
Key points from the report:
- One installer told the Star the rebate is "not a good option" for about 95 per cent of their clients, since turning it down and keeping net metering pays the system off faster.
- Since the program launched in January 2025, only 339 people have received a solar and/or battery rebate, according to the Independent Electricity System Operator. Installers estimate roughly one in 10 customers take it.
- Internal Ministry of Energy analysis, obtained through access-to-information requests, put payback for a non-exporting system at 30 to 40 years, longer than a 25-year useful life. Net metering alone brought that to 23 to 29 years. Taking the rebate and exporting together would have meant 17 to 22 years.
- Adding a battery makes it worse: with the rebate alone, the analysis put payback at 73 to 100-plus years.
- Combining the two was allowed until 2024, when the earlier Home Efficiency Rebate+ program stopped taking new applications.
The province's position, per a spokesperson quoted in the story, is that the program offers rebates to support small-scale generation as part of a broader approach to meeting rising demand.
What the rebate actually offers
From our fact sheet, the Ontario program pays $1,000 per kW of solar, up to $5,000 and no more than 50% of the cost, and it cannot be combined with net metering. A battery adds $300/kWh up to $5,000 when installed with new solar. Pre-approval and a participating contractor are required.
What it means for your costs
Our model puts a 6 kWp rooftop system at $25,400 typical, with a mid-range spread of $19,800 – $33,000. Basic systems start around $18,000 and premium installs reach $31,400. These figures are before HST (13% in Ontario) and before any rebate.
Because the rebate caps at $5,000 and cannot exceed half the cost, it is a modest slice of that price. The real question is whether it is worth more than the bill credits you would give up over the life of the system. For many households, the report suggests it is not.
Practical steps:
- Price the system without the rebate first. Build your payback case on net metering, then see whether the rebate beats it.
- Ask installers to model both options in writing, with assumptions on your own usage and roof.
- Be cautious with batteries. The government's own figures show payback stretching very far when a battery is paired with the rebate alone.
- Check your quote. Our "is my quote fair" tool compares an installer's price against our live model.
Related projects
Solar often sits alongside other electrical work. An EV charger installation install runs $1,400 – $2,350 at mid-range, and a new panel may be needed if you add both. If you are upgrading the whole system, see our House rewiring guide, where a typical job comes to $10,500. Electrical work must be done by a licensed contractor and, in Ontario, permits and notifications are filed with the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA).
For the solar costs in full, see our Solar panels guide.
How we calculate
Our figures combine labour hours multiplied by local rates with materials, checked against market prices and real quotes. We update them as the market moves, and they exclude GST/HST so you can apply your own provincial rate.