What does the Hydro-Québec solar subsidy provide?
It will soon be possible to produce 20 times more electricity than is currently permitted, Hydro-Québec announced Thursday. And in 2026, Quebecers will be able to benefit from a subsidy – of around $500 per kilowatt – for the acquisition of solar panels.
” [La subvention] could represent around 10 to 15% of an installation,” explains Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.
Aid that encourages the production of electricity rather than reducing consumption, according to Pierre-Olivier Pineau, holder of the Chair in Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal. In his opinion, this is not an approach that makes consumers responsible.
“What makes me furious is: why would we subsidize the electricity consumption of people who consume the most?” he immediately raises. The specialist explains that there is an extremely clear correlation between income level and electricity consumption, and refers to the high cost of the panels.
An installation of 16 photovoltaic solar panels of 300 watts each would cost about $14,400 for an average-sized home, according to the Hydro-Québec website. In this case, the grant would save between $1,440 and $2,160.
The average number of panels purchased by residential customers is between 10 and 24, estimates Ecosolaris, a Quebec company specializing in solar energy.
Is solar energy profitable for consumers in Quebec?
The biggest myth about solar panels, according to the owner of Ecosolaris? Saving money.
“If you’re in Quebec, stop brushing your teeth with hot water and you’ll save a lot more than installing a solar system on your house!” jokes Martin Lambert, owner of the company located in Saint-Jérôme.
Currently, it would take at least 20 years to pay for the purchase of solar panels, according to Hydro-Québec’s web calculator. And they may need to be replaced before the return on investment has been obtained, since their lifespan is, on average, 20 to 30 years.
“Given electricity rates in Quebec, it is not necessarily the province where the return on investment is the quickest, because our rates are the lowest,” explains Cendrix Bouchard, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec.
According to the data in the report State of energy in Quebec 2024published in February by HEC Montréal, Hydro-Québec residential customers pay less than 86% of the cost of the energy they actually consume.
About 35 to 40% of Ecosolaris’ clientele comes from outside Quebec. For the moment, Quebec clients interested in a solar panel project are doing so mainly for the ecological values they advocate.
What are the constraints of solar energy for the consumer?
Hydro-Québec wants to promote self-production of energy, but considers it unrealistic to achieve energy independence for a residence with solar panels as the only source.
According to the Crown corporation’s website, up to 70 panels are needed to meet the total energy demand of an average home. That number of panels would require about two-thirds of a tennis court in area. And the installation could be very expensive.
” [L’indépendance énergétique] “It’s not impossible,” believes energy specialist Pierre-Olivier Pineau. “But if we want to achieve energy efficiency, there are no two ways about it; we have to make buildings more efficient, airtight, insulated.”
Furthermore, constraints such as the orientation of the roof, the position of the house and even the outside temperature have an impact on the efficiency of the panels.
According to the company Ecosolaris, the cold of Quebec winters is not as damaging to the panels as popular belief would have it. It is rather the lack of sun, since it sets much earlier.
As a Hydro-Québec customer, are there any advantages to going solar?
Concretely, according to the example available on the Hydro-Québec website, an average-sized house equipped with 16 solar panels would generate savings of $564 annually on the electricity bill, which amounts to approximately $2,880.
In addition to this saving, solar panels have other advantages. “People who have, for example, solar panels during a power outage, well, they will be able to continue to consume the energy they produce,” explains Hydro-Québec spokesperson Cendrix Bouchard.
Combined with other energy storage methods, such as residential batteries, solar panels increase in efficiency. This would also make it possible to store energy during the day so that it can be used, for example, on winter evenings.
Currently, approximately 800 customers in Quebec, mostly residential, already have solar panels on their homes, reports Hydro-Québec. This is a tiny fraction (0.02%) of the Crown corporation’s 4.2 million residential customers. By 2035, Hydro-Québec estimates that 125,000 buildings could be equipped with solar panels.