Solar panels in Truro, Nova Scotia

Truro 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 1,150 kWh/kW, payback is 8-11 years – among the shortest in Canada.

Truro’s central Nova Scotia location delivers strong solar production – higher than the provincial average and comparable to many Ontario cities.

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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Of the seven Nova Scotia cities on this site, Truro carries the highest modelled solar resource at 1,150 kWh per kW a year. New Glasgow is 1,130, Amherst 1,120, Bridgewater and Dartmouth 1,100, Sydney 1,080 and Halifax 1,073.

That is a spread of about seven per cent across the whole province — narrow enough that no Nova Scotian should choose or reject solar on the basis of which town they live in. Truro leads, but not by an amount you would notice.

What actually makes solar work in this province is the price of what it replaces. Nova Scotia Power charges 19.128 cents per kilowatt-hour, effective 1 May 2026, among the highest residential rates in Canada. Set that against Saskatchewan, where Estevan gets 1,400 kWh per kW — 22 per cent more sun than Truro — and still quotes a payback of 12 to 16 years against Truro’s 8 to 11.

The difference is entirely on the price side. A kilowatt-hour generated in Truro displaces expensive electricity; the same kilowatt-hour in Estevan displaces cheap electricity. Sunshine determines how much you make. The rate determines what it is worth.

There is a corollary worth stating plainly, because it cuts against how most people think about rate increases. Every time Nova Scotia Power’s rate rises, an existing solar owner’s investment improves — you have fixed the price of the electricity you generate. The rate rises that make headlines here are, from the point of view of someone who already owns panels, the thing making the numbers work.

Nova Scotia Power charges a base charge of $20.08 a month alongside its energy rate of 19.128 cents per kilowatt-hour, both effective 1 May 2026. The base charge is worth understanding before you read any savings estimate, because it behaves differently from everything else on the bill.

It is a fixed charge for being connected. It does not fall when you use less electricity, and it does not fall when you generate your own. Across a year it comes to roughly $241, and a Truro system that eliminated every kilowatt-hour you draw from the grid would still leave that on the account. Net metering credits offset the energy portion of the bill, not the fixed portion.

So a quote promising to zero your power bill is describing something that cannot happen in Nova Scotia. What solar can realistically remove is most or all of the energy charge — which, at 19.128 cents, is the expensive part and the reason the payback here is 8 to 11 years rather than the 12 to 16 common in provinces with better sun and cheaper power.

There is a second boundary worth knowing at the same time. Nova Scotia Power’s residential programme accepts systems up to 27 kW on your home’s meter, and up to 100 kW are eligible under the wider programme — but it does not purchase generation above what you consume in a calendar year. Building past your own annual usage earns nothing.

Both facts point the same way: start from twelve months of your actual bills, not from the roof.

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