A price tag of $82,000 to electrify a nearly 2,000-square-foot home with 100% solar power isn’t too expensive, say experienced installers.
• Also read: No more hydro, long live the panels!
“It’s included in the price,” says Antoine Caron, project manager at IDS Énergie in Trois-Rivières.
“It depends on a lot of deals, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me,” adds Benoît Gagné, President of Prosolaire, in Montreal.
Photo by LinkedIN
Patrick Goulet
President of Solar Energy Quebec
The “deal” that matters is, among other things, the quantity of panels and the quality of the batteries and the inverter.
It’s a bit like a car, illustrates Patrick Goulet of Énergie Solaire Québec, an NPO that lists all installers in Quebec.
“You can buy a $30,000 car or a $150,000 Tesla,” he says.
A solar panel costs $350 to $400. A lithium battery costs about $7000, and an inverter costs $10,000-$20,000. Add to that the cost of installation ($5,000 to $7,000) and shipping.
Focus on the long term
However, it can take some time for a solar system to pay for itself.
In the case of Nathalie Leduc and Guylain Bernard in Latulipe, the question didn’t arise because Hydro-Québec asked them $80,000 to connect the house.
For example, for a Montreal homeowner who wants to use their flat roof to produce solar energy, the installation cost would be $10,000 to $15,000.
Patrick Goulet estimates that it would take him an average of 13 years to make the plant profitable by using net metering, ie selling the surplus produced to Hydro-Québec.
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