Community Solar Garden Calculator

Use the blue slider to estimate your average monthly bill amount (your total annual usage divided by 12) and move the green slider to see the impact of offsetting a portion of your electricity consumption with a community solar subscription. The calculations and graphs will update automatically for each selection to demonstrate the annual and cumulative impact on your electricity bill over time, as well as the overall emissions reduction your subscription would generate.

Savings and emissions reductions are estimated and not guaranteed.

The subscription fee, called the Monthly Solar Capacity Charge, is $6.86 per kilowatt (kW) of solar.

The cost will be offset by a monthly credit, called the Solar Energy Credit, which is based on your share of power produced. A customer is credited at a rate of 5.603 cents/kWh of solar energy generated (in 2022, rising by 2% per year).

For example:

If your average monthly bill is $100, with 100% solar offset, the subscription would be 4 kW. Therefore, your monthly charge would be $27.44 (4 kW x $6.86), or $329.28 annually.

A subscription this size is estimated to generate 5,514 kWh in 2022, worth $308.96 (5,514 kWh x $0.05603/kWh). Your net costs in the first year would be approximately $20, averaging $1.66 a month.

Long term subscribers will begin to see net savings anticipated in year 6 and cumulative savings in year 9.

The credit always depends on the amount of solar energy generated and will vary each month. Use our community solar calculator to help you see the range of potential benefits of the program.

Credits are estimated and not guaranteed.

You can apply for a subscription by filling out the form on this page.

You can apply to offset up to 100% of your annual electricity consumption with solar energy, up to a maximum of 100 kW. For the average home, 7 - 10 kW will cover 100%.

We're working towards 80% renewable energy by 2030. That means when you plug in your appliances, heat your home using electricity, or switch to an electric vehicle, you're plugging into a grid that's getting greener over time. The community solar garden gives customers an opportunity to offset the remaining portion of their energy use with clean energy generated from the solar garden.

The solar subscription fee (called the Monthly Solar Capacity Charge) will be added to your regular power bill. Community solar charges and credits (called the Solar Energy Credit) will be added under the miscellaneous charges section and are subject to HST. 

The Solar Energy Credit is based on the actual energy generated from the sun, so it will vary based on the season and the weather. The value of the credit (5.603 cents/kWh in 2022) will remain the same through the year, rising each year by 2% each January 1.

As daylight hours are longer in the summer, the Community Solar Garden will be able to generate more electricity, resulting in a greater credit in the summer.