How much is a year of solar generation worth in Ontario?

For an 8 kW Toronto array generating 9,304 kWh, between $912 and $1,889 depending entirely on what a kilowatt-hour is worth to you. At the Ontario Energy Board's off-peak price of 9.8 cents it is $912. At the Tier 1 tiered price of 12.0 cents it is $1,116. At the on-peak price of 20.3 cents it is $1,889. The generation figure barely moves; the price does all the work, which is why this page shows all five rather than picking one.

Why does the page not give a lifetime total?

Because an honest one cannot be built from what is published. A lifetime figure needs two assumptions: how much electricity prices rise each year, and how fast panel output falls. No source we could find publishes either for Ontario in a form we could cite, and multiplying twenty-five years by two numbers we invented would produce a large, confident and completely unfounded total. One year at today's price is a figure we can stand behind line by line. Everything after that depends on what the Ontario Energy Board does next, which nobody knows.

How big is the difference between summer and winter?

About two and a half to one in Toronto. Natural Resources Canada publishes the monthly figures: 128 kWh per kW installed in July against 51 in December, with January at 66 and February 82. So an 8 kW array makes roughly 1,025 kWh in July and 408 in December. That swing is why an annual total, on its own, tells you less than it seems to. It is also why the credit mechanism matters so much in Ontario, and there is a separate tool here for that.

Which rate should I actually use?

Your own, worked out from a bill. Divide the total amount on a hydro bill by the number of kilowatt-hours that bill covers, and you have your real cost per kWh including delivery, transmission, regulatory charges and the Ontario Electricity Rebate. That is almost always higher than the regulated electricity price alone, because the regulated price is only the commodity line. We default to the regulated price because defaulting low is the honest direction to be wrong in.

Does time-of-use pricing change the answer?

It can, and this page is honest about not being able to settle it. A solar array generates during daylight, and Ontario's on-peak window moves seasonally: it sits in the middle of the day in summer, when air conditioning drives demand, and in the morning and evening in winter. So a summer kilowatt-hour from your roof may be displacing expensive on-peak electricity while a winter one displaces cheap off-peak. Resolving that properly needs hour-by-hour interval data from your utility, which a web page does not have. The five rates are shown side by side so the spread is at least visible.

Is this what I would get paid?

No, and the distinction matters in Ontario. Nothing here is a payment. This is the value of electricity you no longer have to buy, either because your house consumed it as it was generated or because a net metering credit offset the electricity you consumed later. Ontario net metering gives a credit against consumption charges on your own bill; the utility does not send anyone money, and a credit balance is not something you can withdraw.

Solar savings calculator

What is a year of your array's electricity actually worth? Two numbers decide it, and only one of them is uncertain. How much the panels make is published by Natural Resources Canada. What a kilowatt-hour is worth to you is the part that varies, so it is the input, and the page shows the answer at every regulated price so you can see the spread rather than one flattering figure.

Last updated August 25, 2026By The SolarPanelFinder Rooftop Desk

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The headline everywhere else on this subject is a single confident number. The useful answer is a spread, because the same 9,304 kilowatt-hours are worth twice as much to one Ontario household as to another purely on the price they pay.

What a year of this array's electricity is worth

Array sizeWhere the house isWhat a kWh costs youDivide the total on a hydro bill by the kWh it covers for your own figure.Or start from a regulated planSet by the OEB, in force to 2026-10-31.

First year, 8 kW in Toronto, at 12c a kWh

$1,116 of electricity not bought

From 9,304kWh of generation. Carrying NRCan's stated margin of about 10% through to the money gives $1,005–$1,228. This is one year at today's price, not a projection.

Best month, July: 1,025 kWh ($123)
Worst month, December: 408 kWh ($49)
Ratio between them: 2.5 to 1

Month by month

Month	Generated	Worth
Jan	528 kWh	$63
Feb	657 kWh	$79
Mar	873 kWh	$105
Apr	905 kWh	$109
May	977 kWh	$117
Jun	985 kWh	$118
Jul	1,025 kWh	$123
Aug	969 kWh	$116
Sep	825 kWh	$99
Oct	713 kWh	$86
Nov	440 kWh	$53
Dec	408 kWh	$49

The same 9,304 kWh, valued at each regulated price

Every figure here is an Ontario Energy Board price. Which one applies to a given kilowatt-hour depends on your plan and the hour it was generated.

9.8c a kWhTime-of-use, off-peak: $912
12c a kWhTiered, Tier 1: $1,116
14.2c a kWhTiered, Tier 2: $1,321
15.7c a kWhTime-of-use, mid-peak: $1,461
20.3c a kWhTime-of-use, on-peak: $1,889

This is one year at today's price. It is not a lifetime total, and that is on purpose: a lifetime figure needs an assumed annual price increase and an assumed output degradation curve, and no source publishes either for Ontario, so we would be inventing both. It also cannot resolve generation to the hour, which is what a time-of-use plan actually charges on, so it values every kWh at the one price you chose and shows the others beside it. An hourly answer needs interval data from your own utility.

The method

One year, and why the page stops there

Everything past year one needs two constants nobody publishes, and inventing them is how twenty-five-year totals get to be nonsense.

The generation side of this is solid ground. Natural Resources Canada models photovoltaic potential across the country and publishes an annual figure per municipality and a monthly shape, with a performance ratio of 0.75 already applied for inverter and weather losses. It states most systems land within about 10 percent of the published value, and this page carries that margin through to the money rather than dropping it once the units become dollars.

The price side is where honesty gets expensive. The Ontario Energy Board publishes the regulated prices and the dates they apply between, so today's figure is knowable exactly. Tomorrow's is not. The OEB resets these periodically, and the current set was fixed on 1 November 2025 and runs to 31 October 2026. Anyone projecting a twenty-five-year savings total has assumed a rate of increase for every one of those years, and that assumption, compounded, is usually doing more work in the final number than the solar array is.

The same problem applies to output. Panels degrade, manufacturers warrant a maximum annual rate, and the real curve depends on the module, the climate and the installation. We did not find a Canadian source publishing a degradation figure we could cite for Ontario conditions, so this page does not apply one. What it does instead is give you a first-year figure whose every input is named, and leave the extrapolation to you with the assumptions visible.

One caveat is worth repeating because it is the most likely source of error here. An array generates during daylight. Ontario's time-of-use plan charges different prices at different hours, and the expensive window moves between summer and winter. Valuing every generated kilowatt-hour at one price is therefore an approximation, and the direction of the error depends on your plan and your season. Settling it properly needs interval data from your own utility. Showing you all five regulated prices at once is the most a page like this can honestly do.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a year of solar generation worth in Ontario?: For an 8 kW Toronto array generating 9,304 kWh, between $912 and $1,889 depending entirely on what a kilowatt-hour is worth to you. At the Ontario Energy Board's off-peak price of 9.8 cents it is $912. At the Tier 1 tiered price of 12.0 cents it is $1,116. At the on-peak price of 20.3 cents it is $1,889. The generation figure barely moves; the price does all the work, which is why this page shows all five rather than picking one.
Why does the page not give a lifetime total?: Because an honest one cannot be built from what is published. A lifetime figure needs two assumptions: how much electricity prices rise each year, and how fast panel output falls. No source we could find publishes either for Ontario in a form we could cite, and multiplying twenty-five years by two numbers we invented would produce a large, confident and completely unfounded total. One year at today's price is a figure we can stand behind line by line. Everything after that depends on what the Ontario Energy Board does next, which nobody knows.
How big is the difference between summer and winter?: About two and a half to one in Toronto. Natural Resources Canada publishes the monthly figures: 128 kWh per kW installed in July against 51 in December, with January at 66 and February 82. So an 8 kW array makes roughly 1,025 kWh in July and 408 in December. That swing is why an annual total, on its own, tells you less than it seems to. It is also why the credit mechanism matters so much in Ontario, and there is a separate tool here for that.
Which rate should I actually use?: Your own, worked out from a bill. Divide the total amount on a hydro bill by the number of kilowatt-hours that bill covers, and you have your real cost per kWh including delivery, transmission, regulatory charges and the Ontario Electricity Rebate. That is almost always higher than the regulated electricity price alone, because the regulated price is only the commodity line. We default to the regulated price because defaulting low is the honest direction to be wrong in.
Does time-of-use pricing change the answer?: It can, and this page is honest about not being able to settle it. A solar array generates during daylight, and Ontario's on-peak window moves seasonally: it sits in the middle of the day in summer, when air conditioning drives demand, and in the morning and evening in winter. So a summer kilowatt-hour from your roof may be displacing expensive on-peak electricity while a winter one displaces cheap off-peak. Resolving that properly needs hour-by-hour interval data from your utility, which a web page does not have. The five rates are shown side by side so the spread is at least visible.
Is this what I would get paid?: No, and the distinction matters in Ontario. Nothing here is a payment. This is the value of electricity you no longer have to buy, either because your house consumed it as it was generated or because a net metering credit offset the electricity you consumed later. Ontario net metering gives a credit against consumption charges on your own bill; the utility does not send anyone money, and a credit balance is not something you can withdraw.

Sources

Where these figures come from

Natural Resources Canada, Photovoltaic potential and solar resource maps of Canada - annual and monthly generation per kW installed, and the stated 10% margin
Ontario Energy Board, Electricity rates - all five regulated prices and the period they are in force for
Ontario Energy Board, Net metering - that a credit offsets consumption charges and is not a payment

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