Yield, and who owns the roof here
The planning figure is 1,170 kWh per installed kilowatt per year. A 5 kW array is therefore around 5,900 kWh a year and an 8 kW array around 9,400. That is an annual total, concentrated in the long days either side of midsummer, with very little arriving in a midwinter week and none at all from a panel under snow until it clears.
Miramichi's housing stock is unusually simple for solar purposes. 68% of dwellings are single-detached houses, the cleanest ownership case there is. Row housing is negligible at 0.6% and there are no high-rises, so the shared-roofline problem that shapes the decision in denser cities barely arises. 17.6% of dwellings are in low-rise apartment buildings where the roof belongs to the building, and 4.4% semi-detached plus 2.2% duplex make up the rest of the shared stock.
With ownership mostly settled, the questions that decide a Miramichi quote are physical. Which roof planes face near south, what shades them between mid morning and mid afternoon, and how many years the shingles have left. If the answer to the last one is not many, re-roof first: lifting and resetting an array to replace shingles underneath is money spent for nothing.
How long it takes from application to connection
You apply to NB Power online. NB Power targets 10 business days to review the application itself. Once it is approved, the rest typically runs 30 to 90 business days: the installer does the work, the New Brunswick Department of Public Safety inspects it, NB Power swaps the meter for an AMI unit, and the system is connected to the grid.
The time actually goes into that second stage, and it is worth understanding because it is the stage nobody controls on their own. Installer scheduling, equipment lead time, inspection availability and the meter swap all have to line up. Nothing can be energized before NB Power's written approval is in hand and the compatible meter is fitted, so an array sitting finished on the roof waiting on a meter is a normal, if frustrating, part of the process.
What NB Power does with the power you export
Exports are credited at the same volumetric rate you pay for electricity, one for one, rather than at a lower buy-back rate, and NB Power does not divide those credits into tiered or time-of-use bands. Every exported kilowatt hour is worth the same whatever the hour, which removes any reason to reorganize the household routine around the array.
Credits roll from month to month, then reset to zero every March 31, and NB Power does not pay out what is left. The programme cap of 100 kW is irrelevant to a house, so the real constraint on sizing is your own yearly consumption. A system built to fill the available roof rather than to match a year of bills hands the difference away every spring.
Permits: what is certain, and what to ask Miramichi
Two requirements apply regardless of which New Brunswick municipality you are in. An electrical wiring permit is required, and the installation must be inspected by the New Brunswick Department of Public Safety before NB Power will authorize the connection. The equipment itself has to be certified. None of that is optional and none of it is municipal.
The municipal side is the piece to confirm yourself. No permit fee or review-time target is published here for Miramichi, because the city does not publish one that could be verified for this page, and guessing at a number would be worse than useless. Call the city, describe the project, and ask whether a building permit is required and how long the review takes. Ask your installer the same question separately and see whether the two answers match.
On cost, one programme has ended. NB Power's Total Home Energy Savings Program paid $200/kW toward residential solar to a $3,000 ceiling on a 15 kW system, and solar enrolment closed on May 27, 2026. The federal Clean Technology ITC is not available to you: its eligibility rules limit it under the Income Tax Act to taxable Canadian corporations and certain trusts rather than to individuals.