What a Newmarket roof produces across a year
Newmarket's solar potential is about 1,159 kWh a year for each kW of panel capacity installed, from Natural Resources Canada's municipal photovoltaic potential dataset. That figure assumes an array that is well oriented and unshaded, so it describes the best case for the town rather than a guarantee for your address. A plane facing east or west, a dormer breaking up the usable area, or a tree on the south side each pull the real number down.
Use it for sizing rather than for forecasting a bill. Multiply it by the system size you are considering and compare the result with twelve months of your own metered consumption. That comparison, rather than roof area or a round number of panels, is what tells you whether a proposed system is the right size.
Production is strongly seasonal in this part of Ontario. Long June days produce several times what late December days do, and snow lying on the modules can suppress winter output for stretches at a time. Under net metering that seasonality is handled by the credit balance rather than by your wallet: summer builds it up and winter draws it down, which is precisely why the annual view is the one that matters.
NT Power's four-step connection, and the credit on your bill
NT Power connects residential micro-generation of 12 kW or less in four steps. First a Preliminary Consultation Information Request, then a Form C connection application with supporting documents, then a grid-impact assessment and a Connection Agreement that carries the estimated costs, and finally meter installation once the Electrical Safety Authority has signed off on the work.
The step worth understanding before you commit money is the third one. The grid-impact assessment is where the utility looks at what your specific connection means for the local system, and the Connection Agreement that comes with it carries the cost estimate for the utility side of the job. That estimate is separate from your installer's quote, and seeing it before you are contractually locked in is the reason to run the preliminary consultation early rather than late.
Once you are running, NT Power shows monthly credit balances on the customer's hydro bill, so the value sitting in your account is visible rather than something you have to reconstruct. That is genuinely useful, because credits carried forward for twelve consecutive unused months are reset to zero. A balance that only ever grows is a signal that the system is larger than the household can use, and the bill is where you would see that pattern first.
The practical consequence for design is the same one that applies across Ontario: exported power earns a credit against future electricity charges at the retail rate, not a cash payment, so the sensible ceiling on system size is your own annual consumption.
The building permit, and how long the town takes
Newmarket's building and renovating guidance lists solar panels under Mechanical and Energy Systems as a project that needs a building permit, so this is a required approval rather than a discretionary one.
The town also publishes a review time, which is more than most municipalities do. Once an application, its fees and all submission requirements are complete, the town states it needs approximately 10 to 15 working days to review the documentation. Read the condition carefully, because the clock is described as starting from a complete submission. An application missing a document does not start a slower review, it starts no review at all, which is where most avoidable delay in these projects comes from.
Ask your installer who prepares and files the package, what is in it, and who follows up if the town comes back with questions. Then treat the municipal review and NT Power's connection process as two parallel tracks with their own timing, because clearing one has no effect on the other.
The Lower Main Street South heritage district
Newmarket has one Part V designated Heritage Conservation District under the Ontario Heritage Act: Lower Main Street South. Making alterations to a property within that district, or demolishing one, requires a heritage permit.
A rooftop array is an alteration to the exterior of a building, so if your address falls inside that district the heritage permit is a real step in your timeline rather than a formality to sort out later. Establish whether you are inside the boundary before a designer commits to a panel layout: a design drawn purely for the sunniest roof plane may have to change, and changing it after the fact costs weeks.
Outside the district, the great majority of Newmarket addresses face no comparable heritage requirement, and the approvals that set your schedule are the town's building permit and NT Power's four-step connection process.
What Newmarket's housing mix means for your roof
Newmarket's housing stock is majority single-detached at 59.8% of dwellings, so for about six homes in ten the roof is privately owned and there is usually a choice of planes to build on. That is the simplest case, and it is the common one here.
High-rise apartments are a comparatively small share in Newmarket at 5%, notably smaller than in several neighbouring York Region cities, while low-rise apartments under five storeys account for 7.8%. In both cases the rooftop decision belongs to the building owner rather than to an individual resident, so the first question is about roof access, not about equipment.
Row houses make up 12.8% of dwellings. The house is yours, but the south-facing roof section is narrower than on a detached home and often sets the practical limit on system size before your consumption does. For a row house, get the usable roof area measured before you settle on a target system size, because the design has to fit the roof that exists.
Programs to confirm with your installer before you apply
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program provides 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 should be settled with your installer before an application goes anywhere. Homeowners taking the programme's solar incentive are generally directed to a load-displacement configuration rather than full net metering, and those are different ways of connecting the same equipment that treat exported power differently. Since NT Power's process runs on net metering with credits shown on your bill, check which configuration your project is actually being designed for.
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 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 PV is federally eligible, though each province sets its own technology list. Canada has no federal investment tax credit for residential solar.
Finally, some Ontario municipalities and local utilities periodically offer financing such as local improvement charges or on-bill financing. Availability is local and changes frequently, so ask what is currently offered in your service area at the point you are ready to proceed.