Can you lease solar panels in Ontario?

Yes. Third-party ownership was enabled by amendments to Ontario's net metering regulation announced in April 2022. The Canadian Renewable Energy Association describes the two arrangements it permits: a solar lease, where a customer pays a third-party developer for the use of an on-site solar PV system over a specified period, and a power purchase agreement, where a third-party developer sells the power generated by an on-site system to the customer. SurgePV names the instrument as a 2022 amendment to Reg. 541/05.

Does leasing disqualify me from Ontario's provincial programme?

Yes, and this is the fact most likely to settle the decision for you. The provincial solar stream requires the equipment to be new, purchased and owned by the participant, and states in terms that rental, leasing and lease-to-own are not permitted. So a leased array is not eligible. Borrowing money to buy one is a different matter: you still own the equipment and you are still eligible, though the financing costs themselves are not an eligible cost.

Why does this page not show a lease payment next to the purchase price?

Because we could not find a single Canadian source publishing residential solar lease rates or power purchase agreement per-kWh prices for Ontario. Purchase pricing is well published and comes from three named guides that we show disagreeing with each other. Lease pricing is quoted privately, deal by deal. Putting an invented monthly payment beside a sourced purchase price would look like a comparison and be nothing of the kind, so we price the side we can and tell you what to ask for on the other.

What should I ask a lease or PPA provider?

Four things, all in writing. The total you will pay across the entire term, not the monthly figure. Exactly what happens if you sell the house, including whether the buyer must assume the contract and what happens if they refuse. Who is responsible for maintenance, repairs and inverter replacement, and within what response time. And what happens at the end of the term: whether the equipment is removed, whether you can buy it, and at what price. A lease that is good value survives all four questions.

Is owning always cheaper?

Over the full life of the system it usually is, because nobody else's margin or cost of capital sits inside the price. That is not the same as saying it is always the right choice. If you cannot buy and cannot borrow, the comparison is not lease against purchase, it is lease against having no solar at all, and that is a different question with a different answer. Third-party arrangements exist for exactly that case and Ontario permits them.

What happens to a leased array when I sell the house?

It depends entirely on the contract, which is why it belongs at the top of your list of questions. An owned array transfers with the property as part of it. A leased one is a contract, and the sale needs the buyer to be willing to take it over. Buyers who do not want to inherit a long-term agreement on a roof are a real complication at closing, and the time to understand the terms is before you sign rather than when an offer is on the table.

Solar lease vs purchase in Ontario

Both are legal here, and one fact decides it for a lot of households before any of the money is compared: Ontario's provincial route requires you to own the equipment, and excludes leasing outright. Work through the questions below and the buy side gets priced from published rates.

Last updated August 28, 2026By The SolarPanelFinder Rooftop Desk

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Four questions, then the buy side priced

Array sizeCould you pay for it?How long will you be in this house?Which Ontario route are you after?

Where this lands

Buying, and the provincial route settles it before anything else does

Buying an 8 kW array outright costs $19,200–$28,000 before HST, at the $2.40 to $3.50 a watt published across Ontario sources (Solar Calculator Canada and Solar Energies in Canada). There is no lease figure beside it, and the last point below explains why.

Paying for itPoints to owningBuying outright is the cheapest way to own the array, because nobody else's margin or interest is inside the price. The whole cost lands at once, which is the only real drawback.
How long you are stayingPoints to owningOwning suits a long stay: the array runs for decades and every year after it has covered its cost is yours.
The provincial routePoints to owningThis is decisive. Ontario's provincial route requires the equipment to be new, purchased and owned by the participant, and states that rental, leasing and lease-to-own are not permitted. If you want that route, a lease is not available to you. Financing costs are not eligible either, though borrowing to buy still leaves you as the owner and does not disqualify you.
Who carries the maintenanceCuts both waysUsually the provider under a lease or a power purchase agreement, and you under ownership. That is a real convenience and it is the thing third-party arrangements are best at. It is also the argument that gets stretched furthest in a sales conversation, so get the maintenance obligation, the response time and the term written into the contract rather than described in a meeting.
What the numbers can and cannot be compared onCuts both waysPurchase pricing in Ontario is published and we can show it to you. Lease and power purchase agreement pricing is not: it is quoted deal by deal and we could not find a Canadian source publishing residential rates. So this page prices the buy side honestly and will not put an invented lease payment beside it. Get a real lease quote, work out the total over the full term, and compare that with the purchase figures below.

Third-party ownership has been permitted in Ontario since 2022, so a lease and a power purchase agreement are both genuinely available here rather than being American ideas that do not apply. What is not available is a published price for either: they are quoted deal by deal, and putting a made-up lease payment next to a real purchase price would be worse than showing one number honestly.

The method

Why there is only one number on this page

A comparison with one real figure and one invented figure is not a comparison.

Purchase pricing for solar in Ontario is well published. Two separate 2026 guides put an installed residential array between $2.40 and $3.50 a watt, an Ontario installer publishes a wider band than either, and our cost pages show them disagreeing rather than picking one. That is a number we can put in front of you and defend line by line.

Lease and power purchase agreement pricing in Ontario is not published. We looked. What exists online is either American, where the residential lease market is much larger and structured differently, or Canadian marketing that invites you to request a quote. Those arrangements are negotiated deal by deal, and a monthly payment depends on the system, the term, the escalator clause and the provider's cost of capital, none of which is public.

So this page does the only honest thing available: it prices the side that can be priced, and it tells you exactly what to extract from a provider so you can do the comparison yourself. The number you want from them is the total across the entire term, not the monthly figure. A monthly payment next to a lump sum is not a comparison either.

The thing that genuinely decides this for many Ontario households is not money at all, though. The provincial route requires ownership and excludes rental, leasing and lease-to-own by name. If you want that route, the lease question is already closed. And the two Ontario routes are themselves mutually exclusive, so choosing a financing structure can quietly choose a route as well. That is worth understanding before you sign anything, and the conditions are set out in full on our rebates and net metering page.

Frequently asked questions

Can you lease solar panels in Ontario?: Yes. Third-party ownership was enabled by amendments to Ontario's net metering regulation announced in April 2022. The Canadian Renewable Energy Association describes the two arrangements it permits: a solar lease, where a customer pays a third-party developer for the use of an on-site solar PV system over a specified period, and a power purchase agreement, where a third-party developer sells the power generated by an on-site system to the customer. SurgePV names the instrument as a 2022 amendment to Reg. 541/05.
Does leasing disqualify me from Ontario's provincial programme?: Yes, and this is the fact most likely to settle the decision for you. The provincial solar stream requires the equipment to be new, purchased and owned by the participant, and states in terms that rental, leasing and lease-to-own are not permitted. So a leased array is not eligible. Borrowing money to buy one is a different matter: you still own the equipment and you are still eligible, though the financing costs themselves are not an eligible cost.
Why does this page not show a lease payment next to the purchase price?: Because we could not find a single Canadian source publishing residential solar lease rates or power purchase agreement per-kWh prices for Ontario. Purchase pricing is well published and comes from three named guides that we show disagreeing with each other. Lease pricing is quoted privately, deal by deal. Putting an invented monthly payment beside a sourced purchase price would look like a comparison and be nothing of the kind, so we price the side we can and tell you what to ask for on the other.
What should I ask a lease or PPA provider?: Four things, all in writing. The total you will pay across the entire term, not the monthly figure. Exactly what happens if you sell the house, including whether the buyer must assume the contract and what happens if they refuse. Who is responsible for maintenance, repairs and inverter replacement, and within what response time. And what happens at the end of the term: whether the equipment is removed, whether you can buy it, and at what price. A lease that is good value survives all four questions.
Is owning always cheaper?: Over the full life of the system it usually is, because nobody else's margin or cost of capital sits inside the price. That is not the same as saying it is always the right choice. If you cannot buy and cannot borrow, the comparison is not lease against purchase, it is lease against having no solar at all, and that is a different question with a different answer. Third-party arrangements exist for exactly that case and Ontario permits them.
What happens to a leased array when I sell the house?: It depends entirely on the contract, which is why it belongs at the top of your list of questions. An owned array transfers with the property as part of it. A leased one is a contract, and the sale needs the buyer to be willing to take it over. Buyers who do not want to inherit a long-term agreement on a roof are a real complication at closing, and the time to understand the terms is before you sign rather than when an offer is on the table.

Sources

Where these figures come from

Canadian Renewable Energy Association, A major step forward for on-site solar in Ontario - the 2022 amendments enabling third-party ownership, and the definitions of a solar lease and a PPA
SurgePV, Ontario Solar Regulations, Net Metering and ESA Permits - Reg. 541/05 as the instrument amended in 2022
Solar Energies in Canada, Solar Panels Ontario Installation Cost Guide 2026 - the second published Ontario per-watt band on the buy side
Solar Calculator Canada, Ontario Solar Calculator (2026) - the Ontario-wide per-watt band on the buy side

The ownership requirement and the exclusion of rental, leasing and lease-to-own come from the provincial solar stream requirements, recorded with the verbatim sentence in this site's claims evidence file and set out with every other condition on the rebates and net metering page.

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