Solar panels in Amherst, Nova Scotia

Amherst sits near the New Brunswick border in Cumberland County with solar production of 1,120 kWh/kW annually. Nova Scotia Power’s rate of 19.128 cents/kWh (effective May 2026) combined with 1:1 net metering delivers payback of 8-11 years – among the shortest in Canada.

Amherst residents have access to Clean Energy PACE financing through the Clean Foundation – property-assessed loans for solar with no upfront costs, making solar accessible regardless of cash on hand.

SolarHomes Program – Closed

The SolarHomes Program closed to new residential applicants on April 17, 2025. Previously offered $0.30/watt (up to $3,000) through Efficiency Nova Scotia.

Clean Energy Financing – Closed to New Applications

Amherst and Cumberland County both took part in Clean Energy Financing, the Clean Foundation’s property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programme, which financed solar through a charge attached to the property rather than to the owner – so the balance transferred on sale. It ran in twelve Nova Scotia municipalities, Amherst and Cumberland among them.

Clean Foundation now states that Clean Energy Financing is no longer accepting new applications. Existing applicants can contact the programme directly. Budget an Amherst system without it, and be sceptical of any quote that assumes PACE financing is available.

Enhanced Net Metering

NS Power credits excess solar at the full retail rate (~19.1 cents/kWh). Systems up to 27 kW use the simplified interconnection option; up to 100 kW are eligible. Credits roll over 12 months, and year-end surplus credits are paid out at the retail rate – one of the best net metering programs in Canada.

Federal Greener Homes Programs – Closed

The federal Canada Greener Homes Grant closed to new applicants in March 2024, and the Greener Homes Loan closed October 1, 2025. Neither is available to new applicants. With Clean Energy Financing also closed, net metering is now the primary mechanism working in your favour here – alongside Nova Scotia’s high electricity rate, which is what makes an 8 to 11 year payback possible on 1,120 kWh per kW.

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Amherst sits at the Nova Scotia end of the Isthmus of Chignecto, and the provincial border is a short drive away. That geography produces one of the sharpest electricity price differences anywhere we work.

Nova Scotia Power charges 19.128 cents per kilowatt-hour, effective 1 May 2026. Across the border, NB Power’s residential rate is 15.39 cents, effective 14 April 2026. A household in Amherst therefore pays roughly 24 per cent more for the same electricity than one in Sackville or Moncton, twenty to forty minutes away.

For solar that difference works entirely in Amherst’s favour, and it is worth being clear about why. The value of a solar system is the electricity you stop buying. The more expensive that electricity, the more each generated kilowatt-hour is worth. Amherst and Moncton have almost identical sunshine — 1,120 kWh per kW here against 1,144 there — so the systems produce nearly the same amount, and the Amherst one is worth about a quarter more per unit produced.

That is why Amherst quotes a payback of 8 to 11 years while Moncton quotes 9 to 13, despite Moncton having marginally better sun.

It is an uncomfortable thing to explain to a homeowner — your power is expensive, which is precisely why generating your own pays — but it is the honest mechanism, and it is the same reason Nova Scotia as a whole beats sunnier provinces on payback.

An Amherst homeowner researching solar will find a good deal of writing about programmes that no longer take applications. It is worth setting out the position plainly.

Nova Scotia’s SolarHomes rebate, which paid $0.30 per watt up to $3,000 through Efficiency Nova Scotia, closed to new residential applicants on 17 April 2025. The federal Canada Greener Homes Grant closed to new applicants in March 2024 and the accompanying Greener Homes Loan closed on 1 October 2025. Clean Energy Financing — the Clean Foundation’s PACE programme, in which both the Town of Amherst and Cumberland County participated — is, on Clean Foundation’s own statement, no longer accepting new applications.

So there is currently no rebate and no municipal financing to build into an Amherst budget. Anyone quoting you a price that assumes otherwise is working from stale information, and it is a fair question to ask directly.

What remains is not nothing, and it is the part that actually does the work. Nova Scotia Power credits your excess generation at the full retail rate — 19.128 cents, among the highest in Canada — rather than at a discounted export price, with credits rolling over twelve months and year-end surplus paid out. Systems up to 27 kW use the simplified interconnection route.

That combination is why Amherst still quotes a payback of 8 to 11 years with no subsidy at all. The high rate is doing what a rebate would do elsewhere.

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