Federal report says $45,000 rooftop solar systems can take 30 years to pay off
The report to Canada's natural resources minister states that the case for widespread residential rooftop solar panel installation is "limited."
Installing rooftop solar panels makes limited financial sense for most Canadian homeowners, according to an internal Department of Natural Resources report obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The May 20 Memorandum To The Minister, prepared for Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, estimated homeowners can wait between 10 and 30 years to recover the cost of installing residential solar panels.
Those costs can range from $10,000 to $45,000, including associated debt-servicing expenses.
“At present the economic case for widespread residential rooftop solar photovoltaic installations in most jurisdictions across Canada is limited compared to other international jurisdictions,” the memo said.
The department concluded that rooftop solar remains largely restricted to financially secure homeowners capable of covering thousands of dollars in upfront costs and carrying the related debt.
Government subsidies can shorten the repayment period, but previous federal incentives produced limited participation.
Ottawa’s 2020 Greener Homes Program offered homeowners grants of up to $5,000 for eligible improvements. According to the memo, only 38,500 homeowners nationwide used the program to install solar panels.
Natural Resources Canada said residential solar is less financially competitive in Canada than in countries such as Australia because Canadians generally pay lower electricity rates while facing higher installation labour costs.
Officials maintained that rooftop panels may provide benefits beyond household electricity savings, including reducing demand for expensive, large-scale grid infrastructure. However, the memo acknowledged that calculating those benefits is “highly context-specific and difficult to extrapolate.”
The findings echo a 2021 Natural Resources Department evaluation of the $1.5-billion Renewable Energy Deployment Program.
That report concluded the subsidy program addressed a “market failure” because most supported renewable-energy projects would not otherwise have been financially viable.
“None of the projects generated sufficient market revenues to be profitable without the Renewable Energy Deployment funding,” the department found.
The program paid producers a direct subsidy of one cent per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable-energy projects.
The internal documents indicate that both residential solar installations and larger renewable projects remain heavily dependent on taxpayer subsidies to overcome high costs and weak market returns.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Editor-in-Chief, Alberta Bureau Chief, member of the board of directors, and host of The Gunn Show at Rebel News. Sheila also serves as President of the Independent Press Gallery of Canada. A mother of three and longtime conservative activist, Sheila is the author of bestselling books, including her most recent release, Independence Blueprint: What Alberta Can Learn From Quebec.
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COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-09-02 12:38:27 -0400And, at the end of those 30 years, the system would likely need to be scrapped and replaced.
