Solar panels in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia

New Glasgow is served by Nova Scotia Power at 19.128 cents/kWh (effective May 2026). NS Power’s 1:1 net metering means you earn the same rate for excess solar as you pay. With production of 1,130 kWh/kW, payback is 8-11 years – among the shortest in Canada.

New Glasgow residents also have access to Clean Energy PACE financing through the Clean Foundation – property-assessed loans for solar with no upfront costs.

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

The SolarHomes rebate closed to new residential applicants on April 17, 2025. However, NS Power’s 1:1 net metering alone still delivers some of the fastest solar payback in the country.

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At 1,130 kWh per kW a year, New Glasgow has one of the strongest solar resources in Nova Scotia — behind Truro at 1,150, ahead of Dartmouth at 1,100 and Halifax at 1,073. That makes the province’s settlement rule more relevant here, not less. Nova Scotia Power’s residential programme, the Self-Generating Option, accepts a system up to 27 kW on your home’s meter, and surplus kilowatt-hours are banked as you produce them. At your anniversary date anything still banked is applied backwards against energy you were already billed for earlier in the same calendar year, and turned into a credit equal to what you paid for it. But the rule underneath is firm: generation above your annual consumption is not purchased. Build past your own yearly usage and the extra output earns nothing at all. So the 27 kW ceiling is rarely the number that matters. The systems Xolar has running around Pictou County each reflect a decision about a household’s consumption rather than about the size of a roof. One local caveat worth stating plainly: Solar City, the municipal financing programme that lets homeowners repay a solar installation through a charge on their property, is run by the Halifax Regional Municipality and covers HRM only. It does not extend to Pictou County.

New Glasgow is modelled at 1,130 kWh per kW a year. Estevan, in Saskatchewan, is modelled at 1,400 — nearly a quarter more sunshine on the same panel. And yet the payback quoted for New Glasgow is 8 to 11 years, while Estevan’s runs 12 to 16.

The reason has nothing to do with weather and everything to do with the price of what you are replacing. Nova Scotia Power charges 19.128 cents per kilowatt-hour, effective 1 May 2026, among the highest residential rates in Canada. Saskatchewan’s energy charge is meaningfully lower. Every kilowatt-hour a New Glasgow system generates therefore displaces a more expensive kilowatt-hour, and the system pays for itself faster on less sunshine.

This is the single most misunderstood thing about residential solar. Sunshine determines how much electricity you make; the rate determines what that electricity is worth. A province can have excellent sun and slow paybacks, and a cloudy province with expensive power can have fast ones. Nova Scotia is firmly in the second category.

Two things follow for a Pictou County homeowner. First, the rate rises that make headlines are, from a solar owner’s point of view, improvements to the investment — you have fixed the price of the electricity you generate. Second, the fixed base charge of $20.08 a month is the part solar cannot touch, so a quote that promises to eliminate your bill entirely is overpromising. On 1,130 kWh per kW, the average saving here works out at about $1,750 a year.

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