Successful solar hot water pilot leads to major program expansion

Within the first two years of the pilot, almost 400 individual property owners took the HRM up on its offer. In fact, between mid-2013 and mid-2015, the number of residential installations of solar hot water systems in Halifax exceeded the annual solar panel installations of the rest of Canada.

One of the program’s most innovative aspects was its unique financing mechanism. HRM offered property-assessed clean energy (PACE) loans to homeowners to pay for equipment and installation. The loans are tied to the property and are paid back over 10 years, while homeowners benefit right away from the energy savings. HRM was the first Canadian municipality to employ this user-pay model with the aim to create a budget-neutral program.

HRM expects to offset 660 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually through the nearly 400 solar hot water systems and related water-saving measures installed during the pilot, saving 14 million litres of water each year in 1,265 homes and reducing emissions from heating oil or coal-sourced electricity. Residents will save an anticipated $170,000 annually in energy use ($500 per home).

The road was not always smooth for what would become an award-winning project. The financing and payback process, interest structure and return on investment were not always clear to homeowners. And while a streamlined process of working with a single contractor to install the systems worked well for the pilot, HRM now recognizes that an open-market approach is a better fit for a full program. 

The success of the pilot allowed HRM to expand it into a permanent program that includes solar hot air and solar electric systems. The municipality aims to further develop this program to include deep energy retrofits, with a focus on renewable energy and climate resilience.

The project spurred the solar market in Nova Scotia and across the province and provided awareness to Nova Scotian companies that this type of project can work for Nova Scotians." 

—Kevin Boutilier, Clean Energy Specialist, Halifax Regional Municipality