Can I get the Ontario rebate and net metering at the same time?

No. You choose one. The Home Renovation Savings program says systems subject to a net metering agreement are not eligible for a rebate, because the rebate is only for systems sized to displace what the home itself uses. If you want a net metering agreement with your utility, you cannot take the rebate, and if you take the rebate you cannot enter a net metering agreement.

Does everyone get $5,000 for solar panels?

No, and most homes will get less. The rebate is $1,000 per kW of installed capacity, and it is separately capped at 50% of eligible costs, so $5,000 is only reachable on a system of at least 5 kW where the rebate stays under half the bill. A smaller array is paid at the per-kW rate, not the maximum. HST is not an eligible cost.

Does ground-mounted solar qualify for the Ontario rebate?

No. The program requirements state that other forms of solar PV equipment such as ground-mounted solar are not eligible. The equipment has to be on the roof of the home, or on the roof of a permanent existing structure on the property connected to the same hydro meter, for example a detached garage. Trailers and other temporary or portable structures are excluded too.

Can I apply after my panels are already installed?

No. Written pre-approval is mandatory. Your contractor submits a pre-installation application, and you must have written pre-approval from the IESO and approval from your local utility before anything is purchased or installed. Installing first permanently disqualifies the project.

Is the Canada Greener Homes Grant still available?

No. It is closed. Natural Resources Canada lists the program's status as closed, and in Ontario the associated Enbridge Gas Home Efficiency Rebate Plus intake closed to new applicants on February 5, 2024. Treat any installer still advertising it as out of date.

Do you publish a payback period or an estimate of what I will save?

Not on this page, and never as a single site-wide number. Our tools section now carries estimators that work this out for one system at a time, and they are built only from sources we can name: the Ontario Energy Board's regulated electricity price, Natural Resources Canada's published solar yield for your municipality, and installed costs taken from the named Ontario price guides on our cost pages. Each one shows its arithmetic on screen and states the range around it. That is the standard we ask of anyone else too: a payback figure with no assumptions attached to it tells you nothing, because your own electricity use, roof, shading and utility all change the answer.

Does SolarPanelFinder handle rebate applications?

No. We are a directory. The pre-installation application is submitted by a licensed electrical contractor on your behalf, and the program is administered by the IESO and your local utility. Nothing on this site is an application, an approval or advice about your specific home.

Ontario solar rebates and net metering

What Ontario actually pays toward home solar, every condition attached to it, and the one trade-off that decides which route is worth more to you. Each figure below was read off the program's own page on August 4, 2026, and the source is named beside it.

Last updated August 25, 2026By The SolarPanelFinder Rooftop Desk

You get the rebate or net metering. Not both.

This is the part that gets left out. The Home Renovation Savings program funds systems "designed for load displacement only", which means the electricity your panels make is used by your own home. Its requirements state that systems subject to a net metering agreement are not eligible for a rebate, and the program page tells homeowners to choose one route or the other.

So the rebate is worth more to a household that uses most of what it generates, and net metering is worth more to a household that generates a surplus it wants credited against later bills. Which one wins depends on your own consumption pattern, not on which number is bigger. Ask any installer quoting you a rebate which of the two they have assumed, and ask them to show you the arithmetic both ways.

The solar rebate: $1,000 per kW, to $5,000

Ontario's Home Renovation Savings program pays $1,000 for every kW of installed solar capacity. Two separate caps sit on top of it: the rebate cannot exceed 50% of eligible costs, and it cannot exceed $5,000 in total. A 3 kW array is paid at the per-kW rate, not at the maximum, and HST is not an eligible cost. It is the only program in Ontario today that pays a homeowner anything toward residential solar.

Every condition, because all of them bind

You must own the home and be the person paying for the purchase and installation. Tenants cannot apply on an owner's behalf.
Roof mounted only. Ground-mounted solar is named as not eligible, and so are trailers, RVs and other temporary or portable structures.
First system only. A home that already has solar or storage is excluded.
The home must be a detached, semi-detached, row house, townhome, or a mobile home on a permanent foundation, with a residential hydro metered account on the IESO-controlled grid. Condos and larger multi-unit buildings are not on the eligible list, and Cornwall Electric customers are excluded.
Written pre-approval is mandatory. Your contractor files a pre-installation application, and you need written approval from the IESO and from your local utility before anything is bought or installed. There is no retroactive claim.
It must be designed and installed by a licensed electrical contractor. Self-installations do not qualify.
Equipment must be new, bought in Canada, and owned by you. Rental, leasing and lease-to-own are excluded.
The work must finish within 12 months of pre-installation approval, and the post-installation application is due within 30 days of installation.
One solar measure and one storage measure per home, and it cannot be stacked with other Enbridge Gas, Save on Energy or Government of Ontario incentives.
Approval is at the IESO's sole discretion. Applying does not guarantee a rebate.

Battery storage: $300 per kWh, to another $5,000

The same program pays $300 per kWh of installed battery capacity, under the same 50% of eligible costs cap, to a further $5,000. Every condition above applies, and one more matters most: the battery only qualifies when it is installed together with a new solar system and is sized for it. Adding a battery to panels you already own does not qualify, because a home that already has a solar or storage system is excluded outright. The battery must also be designed to store what your panels generate rather than to charge off the grid.

Taken together the two measures are worth up to $10,000, but only for a household installing both at once, on a roof, as a first system, with pre-approval, and giving up net metering. Solar on its own can never reach that figure, and reaching it at all needs roughly 5 kW of panels and 16.7 kWh of storage with both staying under the 50% cap.

Net metering is a bill credit, not income

When your panels generate more than the house is using, the surplus goes to your utility's grid and you receive a credit on your electricity bill. Nobody sends you money. The Ontario Energy Board is explicit that the credit can only offset charges related to the electricity you consumed, so it cannot be applied to delivery charges, regulatory charges or taxes.

Credits carry forward for up to 12 months, after which they are reduced to zero. That is why a system sized far beyond what a home actually uses is rarely worth what it costs: the surplus expires. Eligibility requires generating renewable electricity primarily for your own use, a net metering agreement with your utility, and passing their connection, technical and inspection requirements. Confirm capacity with your own utility before you commit, because a connection can be refused on a restricted feeder.

Toronto's Home Energy Loan Program is a loan, not a grant

The City of Toronto's Home Energy Loan Program is open and lists rooftop solar PV and battery storage as eligible improvements. It lends money; it does not give any away. You borrow the lesser of 10% of your property's current value assessment or $125,000, and for essentially every Toronto home the 10% figure is the one that binds. Solar projects qualify for a term of up to 20 years.

It is repaid through your property tax bill in 11 instalments a year and is subject to the same penalties, remedies and lien priorities as property tax. The City's rates are valid until September 30, 2026: 3.34% over 5 years, 4.01% over 10, 4.46% over 15 and 4.86% over 20, and a 2% administrative charge is added on top of whichever you choose. The loan value including interest and that charge counts toward the cap.

You need every owner on title to consent, written consent from your mortgage lender if the property is mortgaged, a property tax and utility payment record with no more than three 60-day arrears in three years, and a pre-retrofit and post-retrofit home energy assessment by an NRCan-registered energy advisor, which you pay for. The property must be in Toronto and be a low-rise residential building of at most three storeys and six units.

Permits and approvals

The electrical work needs an ESA permit and an ESA inspection. A roof-mounted array usually needs a municipal building permit as well. Anything connecting to the grid goes through an application to the local utility, which is Toronto Hydro, Alectra or Elexicon depending on the address.

Ask who files each one before you sign. Installers normally handle all three, but “normally” is not a contract, and the homeowner is the one left holding an uninspected system if nobody did.

What is closed

The Canada Greener Homes Grant is closed. Natural Resources Canada publishes its status as closed, and the deadline for Ontario applicants to complete a post-retrofit evaluation passed on December 1, 2025. In Ontario it was co-delivered with Enbridge Gas as Home Efficiency Rebate Plus, whose intake closed to new applicants on February 5, 2024. The Canada Greener Homes Loan is also closed to new applicants.

If a quote or a website still advertises either one, it is out of date. That is worth raising with the company, because it tells you something about how current the rest of their information is.

What this page deliberately does not tell you

There is no payback period here, no annual savings figure, no lifetime savings total, no system price and no calculator. A single site-wide number for any of them would be misleading rather than helpful, because your own electricity use, roof, shading, utility and equipment change all of them. Where we can name every source that feeds a calculation, we put it in a tool you drive yourself, with the arithmetic on screen and the range stated. Those live in our tools section, not here, and none of them is a claim about a program.

Nothing here is an endorsement of any company. The program requirements state that the IESO does not keep a list of pre-qualified contractors and does not endorse any contractor associated with the program, so no listing on this site carries a government approval, and none ever will.

Where each figure comes from

Every number on this page was read directly off the pages below on August 4, 2026. Programs change, so check the source before you rely on a figure, and tell us if you find one out of date.

Home Renovation Savings, Solar and Storage Program Stream Requirements (IESO and Enbridge Gas) for the per-kW rate, the 50% cap, the maximum, and every eligibility rule.
Save on Energy, Home Renovation Savings for the combined solar and storage figure.
Ontario Energy Board, Net metering for how credits work and the 12 month expiry.
Toronto Hydro, Net Metering Program for the local connection process.
City of Toronto, Home Energy Loan Program for the loan cap, the terms and the rate table.
Natural Resources Canada, Closed: Greener Homes Grant, Ontario for the closure of the federal grant.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get the Ontario rebate and net metering at the same time?: No. You choose one. The Home Renovation Savings program says systems subject to a net metering agreement are not eligible for a rebate, because the rebate is only for systems sized to displace what the home itself uses. If you want a net metering agreement with your utility, you cannot take the rebate, and if you take the rebate you cannot enter a net metering agreement.
Does everyone get $5,000 for solar panels?: No, and most homes will get less. The rebate is $1,000 per kW of installed capacity, and it is separately capped at 50% of eligible costs, so $5,000 is only reachable on a system of at least 5 kW where the rebate stays under half the bill. A smaller array is paid at the per-kW rate, not the maximum. HST is not an eligible cost.
Does ground-mounted solar qualify for the Ontario rebate?: No. The program requirements state that other forms of solar PV equipment such as ground-mounted solar are not eligible. The equipment has to be on the roof of the home, or on the roof of a permanent existing structure on the property connected to the same hydro meter, for example a detached garage. Trailers and other temporary or portable structures are excluded too.
Can I apply after my panels are already installed?: No. Written pre-approval is mandatory. Your contractor submits a pre-installation application, and you must have written pre-approval from the IESO and approval from your local utility before anything is purchased or installed. Installing first permanently disqualifies the project.
Is the Canada Greener Homes Grant still available?: No. It is closed. Natural Resources Canada lists the program's status as closed, and in Ontario the associated Enbridge Gas Home Efficiency Rebate Plus intake closed to new applicants on February 5, 2024. Treat any installer still advertising it as out of date.
Do you publish a payback period or an estimate of what I will save?: Not on this page, and never as a single site-wide number. Our tools section now carries estimators that work this out for one system at a time, and they are built only from sources we can name: the Ontario Energy Board's regulated electricity price, Natural Resources Canada's published solar yield for your municipality, and installed costs taken from the named Ontario price guides on our cost pages. Each one shows its arithmetic on screen and states the range around it. That is the standard we ask of anyone else too: a payback figure with no assumptions attached to it tells you nothing, because your own electricity use, roof, shading and utility all change the answer.
Does SolarPanelFinder handle rebate applications?: No. We are a directory. The pre-installation application is submitted by a licensed electrical contractor on your behalf, and the program is administered by the IESO and your local utility. Nothing on this site is an application, an approval or advice about your specific home.

SolarPanelFinder is a directory, not an installer, an advisor or a program administrator. This page summarises published program rules and is not advice about your home. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will check the source and correct it.

Compare solar companies, then call them yourself

This site does not take quote requests and passes nothing to anyone. Every profile shows the company's own phone number and website, so you contact whoever you want to, directly.

See every company

What solar actually costs in Toronto