What a solar array actually produces in Aurora
Aurora's solar potential is about 1,158 kWh a year for each kW of panel capacity you install. That figure assumes a well oriented, unshaded array, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a promise: a roof plane facing east or west, a chimney that throws afternoon shade, or a dormer that breaks up the usable area will each pull the real number down. It is still the right starting point for sizing, because it lets you work backwards from your own annual consumption instead of guessing at a system size.
Output is heavily seasonal in southern Ontario. A June day can produce several times what a December day does, and snow sitting on the panels can flatten production for stretches of the winter. That seasonality matters more than usual under Alectra's billing, because your account is settled monthly: strong summer months build credits and the winter months draw them back down. Sizing an array against your annual consumption, rather than against a single month's bill, is what makes that swing work in your favour.
How Alectra credits the power you send back
Alectra installs a bidirectional meter and bills net metering customers monthly for the difference between what you draw from the grid and what you send back to it. In a month where you export more than you import, the surplus becomes a credit on your account rather than a payment.
Two limits on that credit are worth knowing before you size a system. First, the credit rolls over for up to 12 consecutive months and then expires, so generation you cannot use within a year is generation you are not paid for. Ontario's rules back that up: exported power is credited kilowatt hour for kilowatt hour at the retail electricity rate, carried forward for up to 12 months, with no cash payment for net annual excess. Second, Alectra credits can only offset future electricity charges. If water or sewer charges appear on your bill, solar credits will not touch them.
Alectra bills residential customers on time-of-use pricing, which means the value of a kilowatt hour you avoid buying depends on the hour you avoid buying it. Under time-of-use, self-consumption and storage carry more value than they would on a flat rate, because the timing of a kilowatt hour, not just the quantity, decides what it was worth. That is the honest case for looking at a battery, and the reason a design should start from your household's load shape rather than from the largest array the roof will hold.
The Alectra connection process, step by step
For systems up to 12 kW, Alectra routes you through its Micro Generation stream. The sequence is a preliminary consultation, a Form C application, an Offer to Connect from Alectra, an Electrical Safety Authority inspection, a Commissioning Verification Form, and then a Connection Agreement, before the bidirectional meter goes in.
The 12 kW ceiling is newer than it looks. As of May 1, 2026, the Ontario Energy Board raised the simplified micro-embedded generation threshold from 10 kW to 12 kW, which pulls a larger share of residential systems into the streamlined path instead of a heavier connection review. If a quote you are looking at lands just above 12 kW, ask what the extra capacity costs you in process time before you accept it.
Two practical notes. Your installer will normally prepare and file the paperwork, but the Connection Agreement is between you and Alectra, so read it rather than signing where the sticker points. And the order matters: the system is not meant to run before the agreement is in place and the meter has been changed, so build the utility's timeline into your project schedule. The installation date and the switch-on date are not the same date.
What Aurora's housing mix means for your roof
About 60% of Aurora's dwellings are single-detached houses, 12,980 out of 21,505 in the 2021 census. That is the straightforward case: a roof you control outright, usually with more than one usable plane to choose between, and no attached neighbour to coordinate with.
Row houses are the next largest ownership category at about 17%, which is high for a town this size and worth taking seriously at the design stage. A row house roof is narrower, and the attached units on either side can shade it and cap how many modules will physically fit. Semi-detached homes, about 7% of dwellings, bring a different problem: the roofline is shared, so an array running toward the party wall needs coordination with the attached neighbour, both for the physical work and for anything that crosses the property line.
About 13% of Aurora dwellings are apartments, where the roof is not the occupant's to decide about. If you rent, or own a unit in a building, the decision sits with the owner or the condominium corporation, and the useful first step is asking them whether roof access is available at all, before you talk to an installer.
Heritage districts and visible exterior work
Aurora has designated Heritage Conservation Districts, overseen by the town's Heritage Planning division. Inside them, changes to the visible exterior of a property may require heritage committee approval, and a rooftop array is a visible exterior change.
That is a review, not a ban. What is under review is how the change reads from outside, so where the panels sit on the roof is part of the conversation rather than an afterthought. Find out whether your address falls in a district before you commission a design: a layout drawn purely for the sunniest plane may have to be redrawn, and redrawing costs time you did not plan for.
Outside the districts, the large majority of Aurora homes are freehold with no comparable restriction on rooftop solar. There is no blanket homeowners association regime layered on top of the town's rules here, so for most addresses the approvals that matter are the town's and Alectra's.
Which programs are still taking applications
The live provincial programme is the Home Renovation Savings Program, which offers combined rebates of up to $10,000 for solar PV paired with battery storage. It launched in January 2025 and was expanded for the 2026-27 programme year, running April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2027.
One condition matters specifically because you are on Alectra's net metering path. Homeowners taking the programme's solar incentive are generally directed to a load-displacement configuration rather than full net metering. Those are two different ways of connecting the same hardware, and they treat exported power differently, so confirm the current rules with your installer and with Alectra before you apply rather than assuming you can have both.
Federally, the Canada Greener Homes Loan (interest-free, up to $40,000) stopped accepting new applications on October 2, 2025, and only previously approved loans are still being funded. Its replacement, the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program, launched in September 2025 and delivers no-cost retrofits through participating provinces, which do not currently include Ontario, for low to median income households; solar is federally eligible, but each province sets its own technology list. Canada has no federal investment tax credit for residential solar, so do not build a budget around one.
Some Ontario municipalities and local utilities periodically offer financing, such as a local improvement charge or on-bill financing, that can apply to solar. Availability is local and changes often, so ask what is currently offered in your service area rather than relying on a list you read somewhere.