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A new $36-million rebate plan for solar panel installation on Albertan homes and businesses should be up and running by summer.

While the details are yet to be ironed out — what systems qualify, installation requirements, who’s eligible — Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Monday the program will create up to 900 solar sector jobs by 2019.

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The program will be funded with some of the cash the government has raked in through the carbon tax, cutting solar installation costs for homes by up to 30 per cent, and 25 per cent for businesses.

Solar uptake in Alberta has doubled since 2015, for which Phillips credits funding programs created by her government.

Wildrose renewables critic Don MacIntyre is unimpressed with the rebate, and sees it as an example of the government artificially propping up an entire sector.

Sure it will create “a bunch of work” for solar companies in the short term, he said, but it will create long-term problems as customers come to rely on the government rebate, rather than the industry having to keep itself afloat.