The rebate that most PEI solar advice assumes is paused
efficiencyPEI's Solar Electric Rebate Program has been among the most generous in the country, paying 1,000 $ per kW DC installed, covering up to 40 percent of costs, to a maximum residential rebate of 10,000 $. It is paused for new applications. The province attributed the pause to high demand after the programme reached capacity for the fiscal year, and existing pre-approval holders can still proceed.
That single fact invalidates most of what has been written about PEI solar economics. A payback calculation built on a 10,000 $ rebate is not slightly optimistic without it, it is wrong by up to 10,000 $, which on a residential system is a substantial share of the total cost. If an installer shows you a payback figure, ask directly whether it assumes the rebate, and ask to see the same calculation without it.
A pause is not a cancellation, and the wording used pointed to funding and programme details for the following year being settled. So the practical question is one of timing rather than of permanent loss: ask efficiencyPEI what the current intake status is and whether new applications are expected to reopen, before you commit to a schedule. Ask, too, exactly what a pre-approval is and whether you hold one, because that is the line between the two groups.
Do not let an installer's urgency substitute for that answer. If the rebate is what makes the project work for you, then the intake status is the project's critical path, and it belongs at the front of the conversation rather than in the small print.
What Maritime Electric requires, and the December 31 reset
Maritime Electric is your provider. Its net metering programme requires a renewable source such as solar or wind, generation exclusively for your own property, year-long billing with Maritime Electric, an application for and participation in a net metering agreement, adherence to the section 13 requirements in that agreement, and a generator not exceeding 100 kW. The 100 kW ceiling is far above a house, so it will not constrain you.
The clause worth reading closely is that the generation must be exclusively for your own property. That rules out arrangements where an array on one building offsets consumption at another, which occasionally comes up where someone owns two properties in a small town. If that is your situation, raise it before a design exists.
PEI net metering works in kilowatt hour credits rather than a cash feed-in tariff for households. Credits accumulate through the year and reset on December 31, and there is no cash payout for unused credits. That date lands at the end of the darkest quarter, so a summer surplus has about half a year to be drawn down before it is cleared. A system matched to the household will generally use it; one built well past your annual consumption will lose the excess at the reset.
Ask Maritime Electric for a copy of the agreement, and read section 13 rather than relying on a summary, since the agreement names it as a requirement you must adhere to.
Who controls the roof in Kensington
54.3 percent of dwellings here are single-detached houses, so a majority of residents control their own roof and can act without anyone else agreeing. That majority is narrower than in many small towns, and the composition of the rest is what makes Kensington slightly unusual.
Semi-detached homes are 13.3 percent of the stock, a larger share than in most PEI towns in our coverage, and row houses add 8.1 percent. In both, roof structure is shared with at least one neighbour, so the project is an agreement before it is an installation. Settle fixings and penetrations, access for maintenance, and who pays when the covering is replaced, in writing, before anyone draws a layout.
Low-rise apartments are 14.5 percent and duplexes 1.2 percent. In an apartment the roof belongs to the building owner, so the route is a written proposal covering cost, ownership, insurance and roof replacement rather than a quote for your unit.
Whatever your category, check the covering age first. Panels outlast most roof coverings, so one within a few years of replacement should be replaced before the array goes on rather than paying later to remove and reinstall it. A well oriented roof here produces about 1,119 kilowatt hours a year per kilowatt installed.
Grants and financing
With the provincial rebate paused, the question of what else is available becomes more important than it would otherwise be. 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, so that route is closed too.
The Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program replaced it in September 2025, delivering no-cost retrofits through provincial partners for low- to median-income households. Solar PV is eligible federally, but each province sets its own technology list, so what matters is what Prince Edward Island has actually included. That is worth checking directly rather than assuming, particularly while the provincial rebate is paused.
Canada has no federal investment tax credit for residential solar. So at the moment the honest arithmetic for a Kensington household is the value of self-generated and credited electricity over time against the full installed cost with no rebate, unless you hold a pre-approval or the programme reopens. Ask for the payback calculation on that basis, and treat any figure that includes 10,000 $ of provincial money as a projection about the future rather than a description of today.