Solar panels in Huntsville, Ontario : 10 Xolar installs in Huntsville

Huntsville in the Muskoka region produces 1,050 kWh per kW annually. While lower than southern Ontario, this is still viable for solar. Lakeland Power distributes electricity. Higher delivery charges in rural areas make solar savings even more valuable.

Ontario’s net metering program credits excess solar at the full retail rate. Battery storage pairs well with solar in cottage country for backup power. HRSP ($10K) or net metering available – but not both.

Ontario’s Home Renovation Savings Program (HRSP), launched January 2025, offers:

• Up to $5,000 for solar panels ($1,000/kW)
• Battery storage at $300/kWh up to $5,000
• HRSP maximums are per category rather than one shared pot: up to $10,000 for solar and storage, up to $12,000 for heat pumps, up to $7,700 for insulation

Important – HRSP vs. Net Metering: Solar installed under HRSP must be sized for on-site load displacement only – net metering is not permitted under HRSP. If you prefer net metering (earning 1:1 credits for excess solar), you would not apply through HRSP. Your Xolar advisor can help determine which option provides the best return.

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

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Of every city on this site that quotes a typical system size, Huntsville’s is the largest: 12 kW, where the rest of the country sits at 10 kW or below.

That matters more here than a large number usually would, because 12 kW is also precisely where Ontario draws an administrative line. At or under 12 kW a residential project is micro-embedded generation and follows the shorter connection route. Above it, the standard embedded generation process applies, with more engineering review and a longer timeline. The Ontario Energy Board raised that ceiling from 10 kW on 1 May 2026, and it reaches Huntsville through Lakeland Power exactly as it reaches every other Ontario city through its own utility.

So the typical Muskoka system sits on the boundary rather than comfortably inside it. A design at 11.5 kW and one at 12.5 kW look nearly identical on a quote sheet and are not the same project administratively.

Why are systems larger here? Because the bills are. Huntsville’s average saving of about $2,450 a year is the second-highest of any Ontario city, behind only Thunder Bay, despite modelled production of only 1,050 kWh per kW. Muskoka properties tend to be larger, frequently electrically heated, often on well and septic with pumps running year round, and many are on lakes with boathouses and outbuildings drawing load.

The practical instruction is blunt: ask your installer early whether the design lands over or under 12 kW, and what crossing it adds in time. In most of Ontario that is a fringe question. In Huntsville it is the central one.

Huntsville is modelled at 1,050 kWh per kW a year. That is moderate — level with Thunder Bay and Sudbury, well behind Chatham-Kent at 1,210, and better only than Sault Ste. Marie’s 1,030 among Ontario cities.

And yet the average saving quoted here, about $2,450 a year, is the second-highest of any Ontario city, behind only Thunder Bay — and among the ten highest of the 102 places on this site, in company with Yellowknife and the Saskatchewan cities.

The reconciliation is the same one that applies in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, only more so. A solar system is sized to the bill it offsets, not to the latitude. Muskoka households run large electrical loads: electric heating in many properties, well pumps, septic pumps, outbuildings, and in a good number of cases a second building on the lot. The 12 kW typical system on this page is the arithmetic consequence — a large system on moderate sun displaces more than a small system on good sun.

What that does not do is shorten the payback, which runs 9 to 12 years. A 12 kW system costs meaningfully more to buy than the 9 kW typical of southwestern Ontario, so the larger annual saving is bought with a larger cheque.

One genuinely local consideration: seasonal properties. A cottage occupied for part of the year has a very different consumption profile from a permanent residence, and Ontario’s net metering credits carry forward for twelve months, which helps but does not make a low-occupancy property behave like a full-time one. If the building is not occupied year-round, size it against actual metered consumption rather than against the roof or a neighbour’s system.

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