+ measured by one Edmonton owner — 12.64 kW, $18,500 after rebate
Two Albertans, one thread, the same July week — and both numbers are honest. What separates them is the rate you count your own sunlight at, and whether the rebate was in the arithmetic. We’re the electrician who gets paid either way, so we’ll just show you both.
Read the ledgerBelow is the same evidence a salesperson uses, and the same evidence a sceptic uses. We have not removed the awkward column. Our electrical work — panels, EV chargers, generators, service calls — pays our bills whether or not you ever put a module on your roof, so there is nothing in it for us to shade this.
Southern Alberta averages roughly 5.0–5.5 peak sun hours a day — among the highest in Canada. The resource is genuinely here.
It arrives on a curve. Most of it lands between April and September, which is precisely when your house needs the least of it.
On the HI rate you are paid 35¢ for every kWh you export to the grid. For a good roof in a good summer, that is a real cheque.
On the HI rate you also pay 35¢ for every kWh you import. It is one rate, both directions. Nobody advertises that half, and it is the single most misunderstood number in Alberta solar.
An Edmonton owner posted his measured numbers this month: a 12.64 kW array, $18,500 after rebate, paid off in 6.2 years — valued, he says, at the rates he actually paid, not an installer’s projection.
Underneath him, a second Albertan put his own system at 12.6 years without subsidies. A third asked the question that decides it: value the power you use yourself at 8¢ rather than 35¢, and the arithmetic changes completely.
Calgary’s Clean Energy Improvement Program lends up to $50,000 over 20 years, repaid on your property tax bill — and the financing stays with the property, not you. Sell, and it can transfer with the house.
It is still debt, secured against your home, at an estimated 5.66–5.75%. That is not the 3.25% quoted back in 2024. Intake is closed until September 22.
We assess the shingles before we quote a module. If the roof has plenty of life, mounting is straightforward and we say so.
If your shingles are near the end, re-roofing later means taking the array off and putting it back. Do the roof first. We will tell you that before you sign, not after.
You do not have to be in your forever home. That is exactly what the property-attached financing is for.
A cash-bought system is a ten-to-twenty-year asset. If you sell in five, you are trusting the next buyer to price it fairly — and they may not.
Peak sun hours: Alberta solar-resource data. The 6.2-year figure is one owner’s measured result and the 12.6-year figure is a different owner’s, both posted to the same r/Edmonton thread on 6 July 2026 — they are two houses, not one system recalculated. CEIP terms and the 22 September reopening: City of Calgary. Solar Club rates: published HI/LO tariff. No figure on this page was estimated by us.
Because outside those months we cannot be certain every piece of equipment going onto your roof is still under its manufacturer’s warranty. So we don’t install. Six months a year, our highest-margin work is switched off on purpose.
“…only doing installs in the warmer months when the company is certain that all equipment is warrantied.” Solar Alberta, member profile, December 2024
Riverstone is an electrical contractor. Solar is one circuit on a much longer schedule. A company that only sells solar needs your answer to be yes. We need your answer to be right — because the panel upgrade, the charger, the generator and the service call are all still ours either way.
Re-shingling and the array has to come off and go back on. An inverter has quit and the company that installed it doesn’t answer. Panels haven’t been cleaned since the year they went up. None of that requires you to have bought from us — it requires a licensed electrician who is still here.
The master electrician who reviews every job
Oliver has been in the trade nineteen years and has run Riverstone out of Cochrane since 2018. A master electrician walks every job with the client before it’s called finished — usually him. It is a small company on purpose: high-quality installs instead of quantity.
Solar Alberta member · SESA member · Licensed & insured
A real assessment of your roof, your usage and your rate plan — with the awkward column left in. If the answer is that solar doesn’t pay on your house, you’ll hear that from us, and we’ll quote you the panel upgrade instead.
CEIP intake reopens 22 September · we can have your assessment done before it does
