Learn / Guides

Is solar worth it in BC in 2026?

For a BC Hydro customer paying a mid-range price, rooftop solar bought in 2026 takes about 14 to 18 years to pay for itself on our model, after the $5,000 rebate. Whether that is worth it to you depends mostly on the price you were quoted and on what electricity prices do next.

Last checked November 12, 2026. Rates and program rules change, so confirm them with the source before you sign.

What changed for solar payback in 2026?

BC Hydro closed net metering to new customers on July 1, 2026 and put them on the self-generation rate. Solar now offsets your own use within each billing period, and any surplus in that period is paid at 10 cents per kWh. Summer surplus no longer sits in a kWh bank waiting for winter.

The BC Hydro rebate for a home is $1,000 per kW of panels, up to $5,000.

So a kWh is worth one of two prices. Used in your home, it saves the energy charge on your bill. Sent to the grid as surplus, it earns 10 cents.

What a kWh of solar is worth	Cents per kWh	Source
Used at home, Tier 2 energy charge	14.08	BC Hydro
Used at home, flat rate	About 12.70	BC Hydro
Used at home, Tier 1 energy charge	About 11.87	BC Hydro
Surplus in a billing period	10	BC Hydro

Check your own bill for the rate you pay. The examples below use 12.70 cents.

How long is the payback for a home with electric heat?

Take a Metro Vancouver home that heats with electricity and uses 14,000 kWh a year. The quote is a 7 kW system for $20,300. That is $2.90 per watt, the middle of the usual BC price range.

Step	Working	Result
Yearly production	7 kW × 1,050 kWh per kW	7,350 kWh
Rebate	7 kW × $1,000, capped at $5,000	$5,000
Net cost	$20,300 less $5,000	$15,300
Solar used at home	6,675 kWh × 12.70 cents	$848
Surplus paid by BC Hydro	676 kWh × 10 cents	$68
First-year bill value	Used at home plus surplus	$915

Figures are rounded, so the parts can differ from a total by a dollar or a kWh.

Even with electric heat, this home has surplus in the two summer billing periods. Its heavy use is in winter, when the panels make little.

If electricity prices never rise, $915 a year takes 17.3 years to cover $15,300, allowing for panel output falling 0.5% a year. If prices rise 3% a year, it takes 14.2 years. We don't forecast BC Hydro's rates. The 3% case is there to show how much the answer leans on that one assumption.

How long is the payback for a home with gas heat?

Now a gas-heated home in the same city that uses 9,000 kWh a year, with the same 7 kW quote. The production figure and the cost side are unchanged. What changes is how much of the power the home can use in the period it is made.

Step	Working	Result
Solar used at home	6,425 kWh × 12.70 cents	$816
Surplus paid by BC Hydro	926 kWh × 10 cents	$93
First-year bill value	Used at home plus surplus	$908

Payback is 17.5 years with prices flat and 14.4 years with prices rising 3% a year. The two homes land within a few months of each other. The gas home sends more of its summer output out at 10 cents, and the electric home buys most of its power in the dark months.

A smaller system changes the picture for the gas home. A 5 kW system at the same $2.90 per watt costs $14,500 and makes 5,250 kWh. On our seasonal pattern the home uses all of it within each billing period. The rebate is still $5,000, because the cap is reached at 5 kW, so it covers about a third of the price where it covered about a quarter of the 7 kW system. First-year value is $667 on a net cost of $9,500, and payback comes out at 12.3 to 14.7 years.

What moves the answer most?

Price does. Here is the electric-heat example at three points in the published BC range.

Price per watt	Quoted price	Net cost	Payback, prices rising 3%	Payback, prices flat
$2.50	$17,500	$12,500	12.0 years	14.1 years
$2.90	$20,300	$15,300	14.2 years	17.3 years
$3.30	$23,100	$18,100	16.4 years	20.7 years

The rate you pay matters too. If the power your panels displace would have been billed at Tier 2, the middle row becomes 13.1 to 15.7 years. So does location. The same home on BC Hydro in the Okanagan and Thompson region comes out at 13.1 to 15.5 years, because panels make more there.

All of these figures assume an unshaded south-facing roof and one production figure per region. Shade, or a roof facing another direction, makes every payback on this page longer. The method page lists the constants.

Is payback the only reason to buy solar?

No. Some people want backup power with a battery. Others want to make their own electricity whatever the return. Those are fair reasons, and a payback figure can't weigh them for you.

What the figure can do is tell you whether the savings promised in a quote are realistic. It helps to set it beside two dates: how long you expect to stay in the house, and how long the warranties in your quote run. We don't take a side on whether you should buy.

How do you run these numbers on your own quote?

The free calculator on our home page runs the same model in your browser, using four figures from your quote and your hydro bill.

If the payback in your quote is much shorter than the calculator's, look at which export rate the quote assumes and how fast it has electricity prices rising. How to read a solar quote in BC goes through each check in order.

Common questions

Is solar still worth it in BC now that net metering is closed?

It can be, but the payback is long. On our model a mid-priced system on BC Hydro pays for itself in about 14 to 18 years after the $5,000 rebate. A lower price or a home that uses most of its solar power directly shortens that.

How long is the payback on solar panels in BC in 2026?

For a 7 kW system quoted at $20,300 in Metro Vancouver, our model gives 14.2 years if electricity prices rise 3% a year and 17.3 years if they stay flat. At $3.30 per watt the same system takes 16.4 to 20.7 years.

Does a battery shorten the payback?

Our payback model covers panels only. A battery adds cost, and the BC Hydro battery rebate is up to $1,500, or up to $5,000 if the battery is enrolled in Peak Saver. Ask the installer to show the battery cost and its savings on separate lines.

Do these numbers apply to FortisBC customers?

No. FortisBC runs its own program with its own terms, and the BC Hydro rebate is not available to FortisBC customers. Check the terms with FortisBC before relying on any payback figure.

Want your own quote checked?

The free calculator runs the rough numbers in your browser from four figures on your quote and your hydro bill. The sample report shows what a written review looks like.

Try the free calculator See a sample report

Solar Second Look is a document review. We check a quote against published prices and program rules. This guide is general information and does not replace legal, financial or engineering advice. For questions about a contract, contact Consumer Protection BC.