Our 4 kW system cost us 16,600$ and we expect to break even in 6 years.
In Ontario we have a micro FIT program that guarantees you a particular rate for renewable energy for 20 years. We will get 54 cents per kWh for the next 19.5 years with our solar panels. Since we're selling energy from our solar panels, we can also write off depreciation of the equipment for a tax rebate. We can also get some of the tax paid on the equipment purchase refunded as the purchase was for a business expense.
54 cents per kWh? That's one hell of a subsidy on residential solar that you guys have. It's roughly 5 times the total retail rate for electricity here in Tennessee. Sweet deal for you... not so sweet for the rest of the utility customers who are paying you every month.
Tennessee has unusually low electricity rates per kWh because of TVA, which is also a subsidy, so comparing Ontario to TN is pretty pointless. The question is, what is the usual market rate for elec in Ontario? We can't know how big/ small the solar subsidy is until we know what power companies typically pay for non-solar form of electric. The FIT is a powerful policy tool for expanding solar use and the rate paid is fully customizable to local market. I wish we had it here.
TVA is completely funded by electricity sales (i.e., no tax dollars are appropriated to support it) and has been for decades, so there's no direct subsidy. (This isn't well known, even among Tennesseans, but it's true.) This includes flood control functions that the Corps of Engineers would otherwise handle at taxpayer expense. You could call the tax advantages of being a Federally owned corporation a subsidy, but TVA does make payments to state and local governments to make up for at least some of those taxes they don't pay. In addition, TVA rates aren't quite as good as they used to be (relative to other utilities in the region) due to massive capital outlays over the last decade (emissions controls at coal plants, the Kingston coal ash spill, refurbishment of Browns Ferry Nuclear Unit 1, construction of Watts Bar Nuclear unit 2, etc.). Plus, other southern utilities are heavier on natural gas generation, which is currently at an artificially low price in the US. (Can you tell that I work in the utility industry yet?)
My quick research on electricity prices in Ontario shows that their rates are actually pretty close to ours in Tennessee, so I assume production costs are also in the same ballpark. The rate on my last bill was 9.64 c/kWh. Rates in Ontario range from 6.7 c/kWh (off-peak) to 12.4 c/kWh (on-peak), with mid-peak rates at 10.4 c/kWh. (Ref.
http://www.ontarioenergyboard.ca/OEB/Consumers/Electricity/Electricity+Prices). The similarity in rates doesn't surprise me, since Ontario is heavy on hydroelectricity with a fair amount of nuclear generation, very similar to TVA, except I think TVA uses more coal than Ontario.
On the topics of subsidies and pollution, just remember there's no free lunch. I could rant all day about how all forms of energy production are subsidized (some more than others) and how people conveniently ignore some types of pollution when deciding what is "clean" energy. I'll spare you though, since it's not relevant to the discussion. :)
So my question is, are the externalities of other forms of generation equivalent to a 40-45 cent/kWh subsidy? I don't even know where to begin on that calculation.