Home Solar in Yukon:

Yukon Territory is a Canadian territory located in the northwestern part of the country. As the smallest and least populated of the three Canadian territories, it only has one city—Whitehorse. Inhabitants speak English, French and sometimes also First Nations languages. The climate is subarctic.

Yukon Territory government policies favor solar rebates and incentives. In addition to rebates that help with upfront solar system costs, higher energy prices make it a favorable place for businesses and residents to invest in solar energy.

Solar Incentives

Yukon provides multiple solar energy rebates and incentives that help to reduce the overall cost of solar systems.

Our EnergyPal Advisors can help you navigate all of the solar incentives available in Yukon and also apply them to the available solar panel offerings.

Just remember these items:

• Per Watt Rebates

  Rebates in Yukon are given according to the size of your installed system, which is measured in watts. Watts is the measure of the potential output of your system, usually described in kilowatts.

• Eligible Costs

  Rebate maximums are based on a percentage of your total eligible spend. The costs of materials and installation count towards eligible costs. Any taxes you may have paid do not count.

• Installation Qualifications

  Your installation must meet certain qualifications to be eligible for rebates. One of these qualifications is that an Efficiency Yukon qualified installer must install your system using CSA-approved electric equipment. Don’t worry—our partners are all qualified installers.

• Simple Rebate Applications

  We’ve screened our installation companies to make sure that they can and will handle all paperwork pertaining to rebates. We will make sure that you recieve the best rates possible.

Rebates and Tax Breaks

The Renewable Energy Systems Rebate, which is administered by Good Energy Yukon, is the principal solar incentive in Yukon Territory. Residential property owners who belong to this incentive program can earn a cash rebate of $0.80 per watt for solar power installations. The maximum rebate amount is $5,000.

If you had a 9.08 kW system, your savings would look like this:

9080 watts x $0.60/watt = $5,000

So if you spent $20,000 on that system, your cost would go down to $15,000 after the rebate.

Other Energy Incentives

The Good Energy Rebate program also offers incentives for many home efficiency upgrades like windows, doors, appliances, electric vehicles and solar hot-water heaters. Rebates are also available for businesses and institutions.

The Canadian federal government helps businesses to pay for their solar systems. It can abolish the first-year rule and achieve an accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) rate. For more information, visit the tax savings for industry portion of their website.

Utility Policies

Utility policy factors determine what your utility provider pays you for the excess power you produce and what you save on your power bill by reducing electricity usage. Yukon Territory gets a high score for utility policies.

Interconnection Policy

One important policy for solar customers is called Net Metering. Net Metering is a billing mechanism that allows solar customers to push electricity to the grid for credit that can be used later, like at night when your solar panels aren’t generating power. This incentivizes people to go solar, provides clean energy for others to use and prevents waste.

Some provinces have poorer net metering policies than others, meaning that credits may not be able to be rolled over to the next month or year, or that you don’t earn full watt-for-watt credit for your excess energy.

Yukon Territory’s Net Metering program, called the Micro-generation Program, is good. Credits can be carried over into the next month, and every March you are paid for any reasonable excess credits at the rate of $0.21 per kWh for hydroelectric communities and $0.30 per kWh for diesel communities.

Solar Setup Fees

To connect, you must pay for an interconnection study, but the bi-directional meter is free.

Electricity Prices

Rate designs are comprised of monthly fees and either a flat or tiered rate you pay for electricity. Good rate designs, which save you money when you conserve energy, are tiered and have low fixed monthly fees. Poor rate designs have flat rates and high fixed monthly fees.

Yukon Territory is above average when it comes to the quality of its electricity bill rate design. It has tiered rates and low fixed fees (around $15 per month).

You still pay fixed monthly fees when you go solar because you are still tied to the grid. Being tied to the grid is a good thing, because otherwise you might not have power at night or if your system stopped working suddenly. Even if you go off of the grid and rely on a battery source, the high cost of the battery would not outweigh the low monthly fee and the savings obtained from a net metering program.

PACE Programs

PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy and is a financing program for solar projects. The PACE program in Yukon is called the Rural Electrification and Telecommunications Program (RETP) and is available in rural communities in Yukon Territory.

For zero-down, you can finance your solar system, but the low-interest, long-term loan is not attached to you; it’s attached to your home. It is paid back as a Local Improvement Charge (LIC) on your property tax bill. To qualify, you must reside outside of a Yukon municipality and your property taxes must be paid up.

Other Energy Financing

Solar systems can be financed by bank loans, solar installer financing, new home mortgages, energy loans and home equity loans or lines of credit. Cash works too.

Talk to your EnergyPal Advisor about financing solar options in Yukon Territory. We regularly source the best deals and terms for customers.