Solar panels in Windsor, Ontario: 3 Xolar installs in Windsor

Windsor is the southernmost city in Ontario and produces the highest solar output in the province at 1,200 kWh/kW. ENWIN Utilities distributes electricity. Windsor’s location gives it more sunshine than Toronto, Ottawa, or anywhere else in Ontario, making it one of the province’s best cities for solar ROI.

Ontario’s net metering program credits excess solar at the full retail rate. With Time-of-Use billing, solar earns maximum value during on-peak hours (20.3¢/kWh). HRSP ($5K solar + battery at $300/kWh up to $5K) 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 (about 16.7 kWh of storage reaches the cap)
• 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 (closed February 2024) and Greener Homes Loan (closed October 2025) are no longer available.

Check all available rebates ->

At 1,200 kWh per kW a year Windsor sits near the top of Ontario for solar yield, and the consequence shows up in the designs rather than in a brochure. Every kilowatt you install here does more work than the same kilowatt in Barrie or Ottawa, so a Windsor home covering the same annual consumption needs a smaller array to do it. The systems Xolar has running in Windsor bear that out: they have stayed well below the 12 kW ceiling that separates Ontario’s simpler micro-embedded connection from the longer process for larger generators. That ceiling is the Ontario Energy Board’s, raised from 10 kW on 1 May 2026, and ENWIN applies it like every other utility in the province. A smaller system costs less to build, and it also keeps your project on the shorter administrative path — in Windsor those two things tend to arrive together.

Windsor is the warmest city in Canada and has the mildest winters, and it is modelled at 1,200 kWh per kW a year — second only to Chatham-Kent in Ontario. The obvious inference is that heat is what makes solar work well here. That is not quite right, and the distinction is worth understanding.

Solar panels are driven by light, not warmth, and they actually become slightly less efficient as they get hotter. A panel on a 35-degree July afternoon converts a little less of the light hitting it than the same panel would on a bright, cold spring day. What makes Windsor strong is the light — long summer days, high sun angle and comparatively little cloud — not the temperature, which is a mild penalty rather than a bonus.

Where Windsor’s climate genuinely helps is on the demand side, and this is the part that shows up on the bill. Air conditioning runs hardest on exactly the hot, bright afternoons when a rooftop array is producing most, and those afternoons fall inside Ontario’s 20.3-cent on-peak window. Cooling load and solar output line up almost perfectly here in a way they do not in a northern city where the summer peak is smaller and the winter heating load, which solar cannot cover well, is larger.

The result is a payback of 7 to 10 years, the shortest band on this site, shared only with Sarnia and Chatham-Kent along the same stretch of southwestern Ontario. Electricity here is distributed by ENWIN Utilities.

• View Solar Panel Pricing ->
• Check Available Rebates ->
• Ontario Solar Overview ->

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