Energy-hungry Nova Scotia companies nearly doubled their solar power capacity in 2025

A Hydro-Québec employee walks past monofacial solar panels installed on the 5.6 hectares at the Robert-A.-Boyd Solar Power Plant in Varennes, Que., on Monday, July 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

HALIFAX — Energy-hungry companies in Nova Scotia are heading toward the light.

New statistics from the province’s private power utility show that commercial-scale players -- which includes municipalities and First Nations -- grew their capacity to generate solar energy by 82 per cent last year.

Energy consultant David Brushett says that’s partly because legislative changes a few years ago have allowed companies to install solar systems 10 times larger than before. The “net-metering” system gives firms a credit on their power bills for the electricity they generate, offsetting their own usage. Even with the new rules, they are not allowed to generate more power than their operations consume.

The program allows solar projects of up to one Megawatt for commercial customers. Brushett says that size makes more financial sense. “So that allowed much larger installations,” Brushett said in an interview.

“And then there’s also very good federal tax incentives now available to commercial customers. So that’s also causing a lot of growth.”

Another factor is a tax credit the federal government created in 2023 that helps corporations cover up to 30 per cent of a solar project’s capital cost.

The solar growth spurt comes as privately owned Nova Scotia Power, which dominates the province’s energy infrastructure, marches toward its target to have 80 per cent of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2030. Renewables generated about 42 per cent of the utility’s power in 2025, and it says solar currently makes up about one per cent of its overall energy mix.

The utility has traditionally relied on coal for the bulk of its electricity generation, and has plans to shutter several coal-burning plants in the coming years. It’s aiming to hit its 2030 renewables target mostly by a mix of onshore wind farms and imports from Labrador’s Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, which ships power to Nova Scotia via subsea cables.

Long-term, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is banking on offshore wind. He’s pitched a $60-billion project known as Wind West that could generate as much as 40 Gigawatts of energy by 2050 if all phases are built. A call for companies interested in building the five-Gigawatt first phase is expected later this year. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the federal government is prepared to help Nova Scotia with the development.

Roby Douglas, president of Dartmouth, N.S.-based installer Natural Forces Solar, says he wants to see solar become a bigger part of the province’s power generation in the coming years, hopefully around five per cent of the total. He says projects like Wind West are great, but notes it isn’t expected to come online until the 2030s.

In the meantime, solar is quick to install and the technology keeps getting better -- and cheaper -- all the time. He says solar is also great for workforce development with employees who gain expertise on solar projects able to transition into offshore wind later on.

“There’s a pretty significant economies of scale,” Douglas said in an interview.

“The bigger you make a project, the cheaper it gets because there’s a lot of fixed costs. So as the companies have gotten more sophisticated and been able to tackle bigger and bigger projects, the cost to generate power from solar keeps getting better and better.”

Douglas says solar and wind projects tend to complement each other, as winds are typically stronger overnight and in the winter, while solar is obviously more productive during the day and in the summer.

Natural Forces has built commercial-scale rooftop solar projects for organizations like the Sobeys grocery chain, Halifax Water and Cherubini Metal Works.

There were 99 new commercial solar installations completed during 2025, a 41 per cent increase from the end of 2024, according to Nova Scotia Power data.

There’s now at least 342 commercial solar installations in the province and Nova Scotia Power says that number may be bigger due to solar operations that aren’t connected to the provincial grid.

More residential customers have taken the solar plunge than commercial users. Brushett says that’s because the government has been offering incentives to residents for longer, so the residential market is more mature. Residential power rates are also higher than what commercial customers pay, meaning a greater potential for savings.

Residential customers have about 110 Megawatts of solar capacity, about six times the commercial amount. Nova Scotia Power says it now has 13,000 total customers participating in solar generation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2026.

By Devin Stevens