Solar panels in Penticton, British Columbia

At roughly 1,270 kWh per kW installed per year, Penticton has the highest solar yield of any city in British Columbia – about 26% more than Vancouver (1,010 kWh/kW) and a third more than North Vancouver (960). The reason is geography: Penticton sits in the Okanagan’s semi-arid rain shadow, with hot, dry, clear summers that look far more like southern Alberta than like the coast. Penticton’s yield is closer to Medicine Hat’s than to Victoria’s. In practice that means a smaller array does the same work here. Our typical Penticton system is 8 kW, against 10 kW in most of the province, and still returns around $2,120 a year against an average rate near 14 cents per kWh – an 8 to 11 year payback, among the shortest anywhere we install.

Penticton is not a BC Hydro town. The City of Penticton has operated its own electric utility for over a century, serving more than 20,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers, and it sets its own rates and its own net metering rules under Electric Utility Services Bylaw No. 2017-44. Two consequences matter if you are considering solar here. First, City of Penticton Electric customers are not eligible for BC Hydro’s solar or battery rebates – those are funded by BC Hydro for BC Hydro’s own customers. Second, and more importantly right now, BC Hydro closed its 1:1 net metering rate to new customers on 1 July 2026 and moved new applicants onto an export rate of roughly 10 cents per kWh. That change was approved by the BC Utilities Commission for BC Hydro. It does not apply in Penticton. The City’s own net metering program continued unchanged through that date. The provincial PST exemption on solar equipment applies to you either way.

The City’s net metering program is open to renewable generators – solar, wind, micro-hydro or geothermal – installed on your own premises, with systems sized up to 50 kW. That ceiling is far above what a house needs; a typical Penticton home array is 8 kW, so residential systems are nowhere near the cap. A bidirectional meter records power flowing both ways, and any excess you export is credited back to your account each month. The credit rate is set by the City’s Fees and Charges Bylaw rather than by the province, so confirm the current figure with the Electric Utility at 250-490-2535 before you size a system for export – it is the one number worth checking directly, and it is set locally rather than by the BCUC. You apply to the Electric Utility first: the net metering agreement has to be in place before a permit is issued, and the City asks for up to 14 days to process it.

Penticton publishes its own solar permit rules in Building Bulletin 19-03, and they are more specific than most municipalities’. A building permit is required for a rooftop PV installation. The City asks for a sealed structural design from a registered professional confirming the roof can carry the array – not just its dead load, but wind uplift, snow accumulation and the anchorage connections – and notes that reinforcement of existing structure is sometimes needed. You also submit a roof plan showing panel location, size, height and setback from the roof edges, plus manufacturer specifications and mounting details. The requirement that catches people out is the fire safety plan: Penticton wants one approved by the City of Penticton Fire Department identifying shutdown procedures, because energized panels are a hazard to crews in an emergency. Electrical work falls under Technical Safety BC, and proof of compliance is required before the building permit is finalized. Xolar handles the entire package – structural sealing, the fire safety plan, the Technical Safety BC permit and the net metering application – as part of the installation.

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