What a Richmond roof produces in a year
Natural Resources Canada models Richmond at roughly 1,028 kWh a year for each kW of installed panel capacity on a well oriented array. That makes the first estimate easy: a 6 kW system produces somewhere near 6,200 kWh a year, a 9 kW system near 9,300. Treat it as an annual figure, because the year is heavily weighted toward the months on either side of midsummer and a panel under thick winter overcast returns a small share of its rating.
After the yield figure, the roof itself decides everything. A south facing plane collects the most across a year, east and west planes spread output through the morning and afternoon while giving up some annual total, and a north face is rarely worth panelling. Usable area is what a designer is really counting: vents, chimneys, plumbing stacks and perimeter setbacks all come out of the roof plane before a single panel is placed, which is why a quote based on a site visit is worth more than one based on a satellite image. Shading needs measuring rather than guessing, since one shaded module can pull down a whole string unless the design uses microinverters or per panel optimisers.
The billing period is now the unit of account
Richmond homes connect to BC Hydro, which closed its net metering rate, Rate Schedule 1289, to new customers on 1 July 2026. New systems enrol in Rate Schedule 2289, the self generation rate. The single most useful way to understand the new rate is to notice what period it settles over.
Under the old rate the effective unit of account was the year. Surplus kilowatt hours banked as kilowatt hours and stayed available to offset later bills at retail value, so an array could run a surplus through the summer and spend it through the winter. Under Rate Schedule 2289 the unit of account is the billing period. Your generation is still netted against your consumption inside that period, exactly as before, and your panels still power the house first. But whatever surplus remains when the period closes is converted to money at a fixed 10 cents per kWh, credited against the energy charges on your bill, for systems up to 100 kW. Nothing carries forward as energy.
That has a direct design consequence in a climate with a strong summer peak. A large array that would have run a big summer surplus to cover winter now converts that surplus at 10 cents, which is below the residential energy rate, rather than at full retail value. So the sizing question is not how much electricity you use in a year, it is how much of your production you can consume in the moment. Shifting flexible load into daylight hours, an EV charged in the afternoon rather than overnight, a heat pump water tank on a midday timer, is worth more under this rate than it was before.
Two clarifications worth having. The 100 kW ceiling is far above anything a Richmond house would install, so it is not a practical constraint on residential projects. And BC Hydro time of day pricing is opt in: the default residential rate is still the tiered one, and you are not billed on peak or off peak prices unless you choose to switch. Homeowners who already had net metering stay on Rate Schedule 1289 until ten years from their own service start date.
An even split between houses and apartments
Richmond has 81,080 dwellings that divide almost evenly: 57.9% ground oriented and 42% apartments. Within the ground oriented group, single detached houses are 30.1%, row houses 19.7% and duplexes 6.1%. On the apartment side, low rise buildings are 22.9% and high rises 19.1%, so the two are close to equally common.
The row house share, at 19.7%, is the number worth pausing on, because row houses are the ambiguous case for rooftop solar. The home feels like a house and the roof plane above your unit looks like yours, but under many strata plans that roof is common property. Whether you can install without a strata alteration approval depends on the wording of your own strata plan and bylaws, so read them, or ask the property manager, before you get as far as a design. Getting that answer early is the difference between a four week project and a six month one.
Detached houses at 30.1% are the straightforward case: one owner, one roof, one decision. There the checks are practical rather than procedural. Confirm the roof covering has enough remaining life that you are not paying to remove and reinstall the array later, check for midday shading across the planes you would use, and have the electrical service assessed, because the main panel has to accept a back fed breaker sized for the inverter. In an apartment, the roof is common property and any array is a strata level project, approved by the building, funded from reserves or a levy, and sized against the consumption of the building rather than one suite.
Heritage rules, and what Steveston adds
Richmond has only 15 individually designated heritage resources across the whole city. If your property is one of them, exterior changes need a Heritage Alteration Permit, and that includes putting panels on a visible roof plane. Fifteen properties in a city of 81,080 dwellings means the overwhelming majority of Richmond homeowners never encounter this at all.
Steveston Village is the separate case. It was designated a heritage conservation area in 2009, and identified properties inside it face additional design review for exterior alterations. If your address is in Steveston, the useful question is not whether the area is a conservation area, it is whether your specific property is one of the identified ones, since that determines whether design review applies to your roof. Ask the city that directly before you commission a layout, because a design that assumes no review and then meets one wastes the money spent on it.
Rebates, financing and sales tax
The BC Hydro solar and battery rebate works on a per kW basis with a hard percentage ceiling, and the ceiling is what usually binds. Residential solar earns $1,000 for each kW of installed generator capacity, up to $5,000, but never more than 50% of the total installed cost. On a modest system the per kW arithmetic is what limits the rebate; on an unusually cheap installation, the 50% cap is. Battery storage paired with solar earns $500 per kWh up to $1,500, with a 5 kWh minimum and the same 50% ceiling, rising to up to $5,000 where the battery is enrolled in Peak Saver.
Since 1 June 2026 the work has to be carried out by a member of the Home Performance Contractor Network for the rebate to apply, which is the most common way a rebate is lost. Confirm membership at the shortlisting stage. Claiming the rebate also places you on the Self Generation Service rate, which matters only to a homeowner who currently holds the older net metering rate and would be surrendering grandfathered years to take it.
Federal support has narrowed. The Canada Greener Homes Loan, interest free up to $40,000, closed to new applications on 2 October 2025, and only previously approved loans are still being funded. Its replacement, the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program, works through provincial partners and targets low to median income households with no cost retrofits; solar is eligible federally, though each province sets its own technology list. Canada has no federal investment tax credit for residential solar, so a quote built around one is using American figures. British Columbia has at times exempted qualifying solar equipment from provincial sales tax, and the scope moves with provincial budgets, so confirm the current PST treatment of your specific equipment at the time of purchase.