Solar panels in Cranbrook, British Columbia

Cranbrook in the East Kootenays produces 1,200 kWh/kW – on par with the Okanagan and comparable to Alberta cities.

Important: FortisBC distributes electricity in Cranbrook. FortisBC customers are NOT eligible for BC Hydro solar/battery rebates. FortisBC net metering (up to 50kW) and PST exemption (~$2,000 savings) apply.

Note: The federal Canada Greener Homes Grant and Loan programs are now closed.

Most British Columbians get their electricity from BC Hydro. Cranbrook does not — the East Kootenay is FortisBC territory, and in 2026 that distinction stopped being trivia.

On 1 July 2026, following a BC Utilities Commission decision, BC Hydro closed its one-for-one net metering rate to new customers. New BC Hydro self-generation customers now take a rate under which exported electricity is bought at a fixed 10 cents per kilowatt-hour rather than credited at retail. For a Vancouver or Kamloops homeowner that materially changed how a system should be sized.

Cranbrook is not affected by that change, because FortisBC runs its own net metering programme. FortisBC allows net metering for systems up to 50 kW, and excess generation credits are applied to your bill.

So if you have been reading BC solar coverage this year and worrying about a 10-cent export price, it is worth checking which utility you are actually on. Advice written for BC Hydro customers does not automatically transfer to the Kootenays.

Two caveats keep this honest. FortisBC’s terms are its own and can change independently of BC Hydro’s, so confirm the current arrangement with FortisBC before finalising a design — a programme that differs from its neighbour’s today may not always. And the 50 kW ceiling is far above any residential system, so it is not the constraint on your project; your consumption and your roof are.

Cranbrook is modelled at 1,200 kWh per kW a year. Set that against the British Columbia coast and the gap is substantial: Vancouver is 1,010, Surrey 1,000, Richmond 990, Burnaby 980 and North Vancouver 960. Cranbrook produces roughly a quarter more than Vancouver and a quarter more again than the weakest coastal figures.

The reason is the same one that puts Kamloops at 1,250 and the Okanagan towns between 1,230 and 1,270: the interior sits away from the marine layer that covers the coast for much of the year. Cranbrook’s own assessment on this page places it on par with the Okanagan, and the ranked figures bear that out.

Against the rest of the country it is a strong position too — ahead of every city we serve in Ontario, where Chatham-Kent leads at 1,210 by a whisker, and ahead of all of Atlantic Canada.

What that buys, as everywhere, is smaller equipment for the same result. This page assumes an 8 kW system as typical against 7 kW on much of the coast, which reflects household consumption rather than a shortfall in sunshine — at 1,200 kWh per kW, 8 kW produces about 9,600 kWh a year.

The payback of 9 to 12 years is better than the coastal cities, which sit at 10 to 14, and the difference is almost entirely production rather than price.

FortisBC allows net metering for systems up to 50 kW. No residential project comes near that, so the programme ceiling is not what decides your system size.

Three things do. The first is your consumption: twelve months of your own bills, totalled in kilowatt-hours, worked backwards through Cranbrook’s 1,200 kWh per kW to the capacity that covers them. This page assumes 8 kW as a typical result, but that is an average across households that differ enormously.

The second is the roof — orientation, pitch, and what shades it in October when the sun sits low rather than in July when it is high. In a mountain-edged valley the horizon matters more than on flat prairie, so a shading assessment made from the actual roof is worth more than one made from a satellite image.

The third is what happens to production you do not consume. Excess generation credits are applied to your bill under FortisBC’s programme, and the terms are FortisBC’s own rather than BC Hydro’s — so it is worth confirming the current arrangement directly before you finalise a design, particularly if you are considering a system larger than your own usage.

What should not drive the decision is the 50 kW figure, or a comparison against a BC Hydro customer’s situation. Cranbrook is on a different utility with a different programme, and the numbers that matter here are your bill, your roof and FortisBC’s current terms.

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