1,200 kWh per kW, and what to do with a good number
Natural Resources Canada's municipal photovoltaic potential figure for Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is about 1,200 kilowatt hours a year per kilowatt of installed capacity, on a well oriented and unshaded array. That is a strong number for southern Quebec and it is the right starting point for a design, but it is a ceiling for your address rather than a forecast for it.
Orientation is what erodes it first. A slope facing generally south produces the most, east and west slopes produce usefully but give up output, and a north slope rarely repays the hardware. Shading erodes it second and costs the most, because it removes production in the middle of the day when the array would otherwise be strongest. Ask for a shading assessment that covers the whole year rather than the afternoon of the site visit, since a bare tree in April is a full canopy by July.
A good resource figure is not a reason to build a bigger system. Under Hydro-Quebec's net metering, surplus banks in kilowatt hours and the bank resets every 24 months, with any leftover balance settled well below the retail price you pay to buy electricity back. A strong yield means you reach your own annual consumption with fewer panels, which is a cheaper system rather than a larger one.
Thirty days on a complete file, and where the fees come from
A permit is required to build, transform, enlarge or add to a building, and the city commits under its own urban-planning regulation to act on a complete application within thirty days. A published service standard is useful because it turns an open-ended wait into a date you can plan an installation against.
As always, the qualifying word is complete. Thirty days run from a complete application, so a missing document does not simply delay the file, it stops the clock from starting. Ask the city what a rooftop solar submission must contain at your address, check the assembled application against that list, and agree in writing with your installer who prepares it, who submits it and who follows up.
Fees follow Annex D of By-law 209, so ask for the applicable line rather than accepting a round number in a quote. The city also notes that complex projects can owe park-dedication fees. That is unlikely to touch a rooftop array, but it is the kind of charge that surprises people when it appears, so it is worth confirming that it does not apply to your project rather than assuming.
Hydro-Quebec, the second approval and the 24 month reset
Hydro-Quebec distributes electricity here, and connecting an array means enrolling in the option d'autoproduction. A licensed CMEQ electrician files the installation request rather than you, and Hydro-Quebec evaluates whether the local network can accept your generation before granting conditional acceptance. It is tied to your circuit rather than to the province, so it is a real gate rather than a formality.
That gives the project two timelines: the city's thirty days on a complete file, and the distributor's evaluation, which carries no published deadline. Draw both before equipment is ordered, and ask which electrician will sign the request and whether they are on the installer's staff or subcontracted.
Residential billing is Tarif D, a two-tier block rate rather than time-of-use, so no hour of the day is cheaper and there is nothing to gain from shifting when you run appliances. Surplus banks as a kilowatt hour credit and offsets later consumption at parity, carrying summer production into winter bills, but the bank resets every 24 months. Capacity is not the constraint at 1,000 kW; your own consumption is, so size to twelve months of your own kilowatt hour totals rather than to the roof area available.
Grants and financing
Hydro-Quebec's LogisVert residential solar grant pays 1,000 $ per kW of installed capacity and covers up to 40 percent of eligible project costs, typically landing around 5,000 $ to 6,000 $ on a residential system. Installations must be completed on or after June 30, 2025, and the claim is filed through the LogisVert portal within 9 months of the installation date. Hydro-Quebec projects that this brings a typical residential payback from 25 to 30 years down to roughly 10 to 12 years.
Because the grant pays per kilowatt rather than per kilowatt hour, a strong solar resource does not increase it. What the resource does is improve the return on the capacity you install, so the grant and the yield work on different parts of the same calculation. Keep the itemised cost breakdown from your installer, because the same figures feed both the permit fee under Annex D and the eligible project cost the grant is capped against.
Federally the options have narrowed. 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. The Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program replaced it in September 2025, delivering no-cost retrofits through provincial partners for low- to median-income households, with solar PV federally eligible but each province setting its own technology list. Canada has no federal investment tax credit for residential solar.