Article content

Kyle Fisher spent more than $20,000 on an electric vehicle, appliances and upgrades to his home west of Saskatoon to optimize it for solar panels. He even redesigned the roof of his new house to maximize how much sunlight would hit it during the day.

He hoped to make his money back through SaskPower’s Net Metering program, which offered customers rebates for solar installations and credit for excess generated power.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Solar switch leaves homeowners on the hook for thousands Back to video

But the program stopped taking applications Thursday less than a year after it began.

“[My contractors] were just waiting for [SaskPower] to set up the account,” said Fisher. “I would’ve signed a contract a year ago if I was able to.”

“The fact that it was so immediate is really jarring.”

Fisher is likely one of thousands of prospective Net Metering customers who was given a quote but couldn’t submit an application before the program was suddenly put on hold.

The Net Metering program allowed customers connected to a provincial grid to generate their own electricity through solar panels subsidized in part by a federal rebate. It was slated to run until 2021 or whenever it hit a 16-megawatt cap of generated power.