Solar

Residential and commercial solar, battery storage and micro-generation connection in Edmonton, designed and installed by licensed electricians.

Solar that works here

Edmonton gets long, bright summer days and a lot of clear winter sky. Solar panels also like the cold: they run more efficiently at low temperatures. The trade-off is short winter days, low sun angles and snow. A well-designed system takes all of that into account and is sized on a full year, not a sunny week in June.

Alberta Electrical handles the electrical side of solar from the roof to the meter, and works with you through the micro-generation process. Our solar services cover:

• Residential solar for houses, garages and acreages.
• Commercial solar for offices, warehouses, farms and industrial buildings.
• Battery storage for backup power and better use of what your panels make.
• Solar micro-generation applications, metering and the paperwork to connect legally to the grid.

How a grid-tied system works

Panels produce direct current. An inverter (or microinverters behind each panel) converts it to alternating current and feeds your main panel. Your building uses that power first. When the panels make more than you are using, the extra flows out through a bidirectional meter to the grid. At night and in winter, you draw from the grid as usual.

A grid-tied system without batteries shuts down when the grid goes down. That is a safety requirement, so utility crews are not hurt by power flowing back onto lines they believe are dead. If you want power during an outage, you need battery storage or a standby generator with the right transfer equipment.

Rules that apply in Alberta

Solar systems that connect to the grid in Alberta fall under the Micro-generation Regulation, with rules administered by the Alberta Utilities Commission. In general, a micro-generation system must use renewable or alternative energy and be sized to meet all or part of the site's own annual electricity use. The distribution utility (EPCOR in most of Edmonton, others elsewhere) must be notified and approve the connection, and meters are changed to measure both directions.

The wiring must meet the Canadian Electrical Code as adopted in Alberta, including rules for disconnects, labelling and rapid shutdown on rooftop arrays. An electrical permit is required, and some municipalities also require a building or development permit. In Edmonton, the City issues both. Because these rules change, we confirm the current requirements for your address before you commit.

We also design with the utility's needs in mind. A clean single-line diagram, correct labelling and a disconnect where the utility expects it make approvals smoother and avoid delays at the meter exchange.

Is your panel ready?

Solar connects into your electrical service, so the existing panel matters. Many Edmonton homes have 100 A panels, and some older houses still have 60 A services. Code limits how much solar can back-feed a panel based on its busbar and main breaker ratings. Sometimes the answer is a supply-side connection, a new panel, or a service upgrade done at the same time.

We check this at the first visit. It is better to know early than to discover it after you have ordered panels.

What drives cost

We do not post prices, because every site is different. The main drivers are system size, roof type and condition, mounting method (roof, ground or carport), inverter type, distance from the array to the panel, whether a panel or service upgrade is needed, and whether you add batteries.

Incentive and financing programs come and go. We will point you to current programs we know about, but you should confirm eligibility directly with the program before you rely on it.

A good solar quote should list the module and inverter models, the expected annual production for your site, the mounting and roof details, what electrical work is included, and who handles the permit and micro-generation paperwork. If two quotes are hard to compare, ask both contractors to fill in the same list.

Questions we hear