Solar panels in North Vancouver, British Columbia

North Vancouver’s mountain-adjacent location results in slightly lower production (960 kWh/kW) due to terrain shading on some properties. South-facing roofs perform well. BC Hydro rebates (up to $5,000 for solar plus battery rebate (up to $1,500 without Peak Saver, or up to $5,000 with Peak Saver)) and PST exemption apply.

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

Until 1 July 2026 a North Vancouver homeowner faced a genuine decision: take BC Hydro’s solar rebate, or stay on 1:1 net metering and bank every exported kilowatt-hour at full retail value. That decision no longer exists. Following a BC Utilities Commission ruling, BC Hydro closed the net metering rate (Rate Schedule 1289) to new customers on 1 July 2026.

New systems go on Rate Schedule 2289 instead. BC Hydro buys your excess generation at a fixed 10 cents per kWh, and — a real improvement on the old arrangement — pays you every billing cycle rather than banking credits until a yearly reconciliation. Because retail electricity in North Vancouver costs more than 10 cents, a kilowatt-hour you use yourself is now worth more than one you export. That makes the shape of your daily consumption matter in a way it did not before: running the dishwasher at noon rather than at midnight is now worth something.

Take the rebate. Declining it no longer preserves 1:1 net metering, because that rate is closed to new customers regardless. BC Hydro’s own position is that the solar rebate is expected to fully offset the impact of the rate change for an average residential customer. One distinction worth knowing: if you accept only the battery rebate and no solar rebate, your service rate is unaffected. BC Hydro also does not permit a pro-rated or combined arrangement across the two rates — it is one or the other.

Of the twenty-one British Columbia service areas on this site, North Vancouver carries the lowest modelled solar resource: 960 kWh per kW a year. Vancouver is 1,010, Richmond 990, Burnaby 980, and inland Chilliwack 1,050. At the other end of the province Kamloops is 1,250.

We would rather put that at the top of the page than bury it. Two things explain it — the North Shore mountains, which shorten the usable solar day on some aspects, and rainfall, which is higher here than in Vancouver proper.

But the number is a district average, and North Vancouver is not an average sort of place. The difference between a Deep Cove property tucked against a slope and an Edgemont or Upper Lonsdale roof with open southern exposure is considerably larger than the 5 per cent that separates this city from Vancouver. This page’s own assessment says it plainly: south-facing roofs with clear exposure perform well here despite mountain proximity.

So the useful question is not whether North Vancouver is the weakest city on the list. It is which side of the local spread your roof sits on, and that requires someone to look at your horizon rather than your postcode.

What the low figure does mean is that marginal roofs are more marginal here. A north-east facing plane, or one that loses two hours to a ridge in the afternoon, may not justify itself at 960 where it might at 1,050. That is a reason for a careful assessment, not a reason to assume the answer is no.

People on the North Shore usually raise rain as the objection to solar, and it is worth separating what rain does from what cloud does, because they are not the same thing.

Rain itself is close to irrelevant to a solar system, and mildly helpful. Panels are sealed glass units designed to sit outdoors for decades; water runs off them. Rain also washes off the dust, pollen and salt film that otherwise accumulate and shave a little output — in dry climates owners sometimes have to clean panels deliberately, which is rarely a concern here.

Cloud is the real variable, and its effect is smaller than most people assume. Panels respond to light rather than to direct sunshine, so an overcast day still produces — considerably less than a clear one, but not nothing. That is precisely why a coastal city like this one still models at 960 kWh per kW rather than at some catastrophic figure, and why Germany, which is cloudier than most of Canada, built a large domestic solar industry.

What the marine climate does cost you is concentrated in the darkest months, when short days and heavy overcast coincide. That matters more under BC Hydro’s current rules than it used to, because your summer surplus now earns a fixed 10 cents per kilowatt-hour rather than banking at retail — so a system sized to cover a wet December through summer overproduction is doing something the tariff no longer rewards.

Size to your own annual consumption instead. In North Vancouver that usually means a modest system on the best available plane rather than a large one spread across compromised aspects.

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