Ontario keeps the workplace solar rates at $1,000 and $770 a kilowatt and moves the size line to 12 kW on 30 November - the regional adder ends the night before, the live page still prints 10 kW, and the update names no battery
On 30 October 2026 Save on Energy posted fall changes to its Retrofit program, effective 30 November. A complete application in by 11:59 PM EST on 29 November still qualifies for the regional adder. The adder's dollars are not on the page. Microgeneration moves from 10 kW-DC or under to 12 kW-DC or under. The small and medium line moves from above 10 kW-AC to above 12 kW-AC. The rates stay $1,000 per kW-DC and $770 per kW-AC. The solar incentives page still prints the 10 kW lines. Rooftop tracking and vertical bifacial panels join the list. Vertical monofacial panels stay off it. No battery is named.
A factory or shop in Ontario can still get a published cheque for rooftop solar that serves the building. The cheque rates on the fall page do not move. The size line does. The extra payment for a tight part of the grid comes off at midnight. A battery is not on this form.
On 30 October 2026 the Save on Energy news list, run by the Independent Electricity System Operator, posted fall changes to the Retrofit program. The changes take effect on 30 November 2026. The detail page on the same program says the same date. The next update on the news list is expected in spring 2027.
The rates. The detail page says the nameplate change comes with no change to the incentives. The live solar incentives page still prints two categories. Micro-generation is up to 10 kW at $1,000 per kW-DC. Small and medium generation is greater than 10 kW-AC, up to 1 MW-AC, at $770 per kW-AC. The fall detail page moves microgeneration from 10 kW-DC or under to 12 kW-DC or under, and small-to-medium generation from above 10 kW-AC to above 12 kW-AC. One line is direct current. The other is alternating current. The pages do not print a single ladder in one unit, so a roof with only one of those two numbers is not yet in a bucket.
The live page has not caught up. It still prints 10 kW, not 12 kW. It also says a system larger than 1,000 kW-AC can be eligible, with the incentive capped at 1,000 kW-AC and at 50% of total eligible project costs, including labour and materials. One thousand times $770 is $770,000, by our arithmetic. The page does not print $770,000. The 50% line can bind at a lower figure. That figure is the project's eligible cost, which this page does not print.
$770 is already a cut. The same news list, in the block dated 29 May 2026, says that on 30 June 2026 the small-to-medium solar incentive was adjusted by 10%, from $860 per kW to $770 per kW-AC. The fall page does not cut it again. The May block also says wall-mounted solar was removed from eligibility on 29 May 2026. The fall page adds rooftop single-axis tracking, rooftop dual-axis tracking, and rooftop vertical bifacial panels, at the same incentives as the two existing categories. Vertical monofacial projects do not qualify. The fall page says they do not line up with the savings assumptions and produce low program savings. A vertical bifacial array and the wall-mounted product removed in May are two different lines. This note does not merge them.
The worksheet timing. The detail page says the Prescriptive Solar DER worksheet and the Retrofit Portal pick up the tracking and vertical bifacial measures on 30 November 2026. It also says applicants may use the existing measures in the portal and the worksheet for those configurations now. Applications pre-approved or submitted before 30 November proceed on that submission. The page does not tell those applicants to refile.
The adder. The detail page says Retrofit Regional Adders end at 12:00 AM EST on 30 November 2026. They were for certain non-lighting measures in grid-constrained areas. The area is the first three characters of the postal code. A pre-approved application stays eligible. A complete application in by 11:59 PM EST on 29 November 2026 qualifies. The news list uses both "Retrofit Regional Adders" and "Retrofit Adder" for the cutoff. Neither page prints the adder's dollars, or a percentage. The detail page says further program opportunities for those areas will be announced later. Later is not a rate.
What the solar is for. The incentives page says the offer is for commercial, industrial and institutional participants, behind the meter, to displace the building's consumption and reduce its draw on the grid. Panels go on a new or existing building rooftop. The building list includes large offices, malls and shopping centres, commercial spaces with parking-lot canopies, municipal buildings, universities, colleges, schools, hospitals, hotels, multi-residential buildings, and industrial facilities. A lessee is in with the owner's authorisation. The page defines load displacement as solar used exclusively for the building's own consumption. A sale of leftover noon is a different product. The same page says the application goes in before a binding commitment, and it gives a purchase order as the example. It sets 24 months after pre-approval as the outside date for the steps it lists. The fall page says the new size lines line up with connection-assessment thresholds the Ontario Energy Board updated in May 2026. It does not reprint those Board figures.
No battery. The fall page, the solar incentives page, and the 29 May block name solar. They do not name a battery, a kilowatt-hour of storage, or a storage rate. A box that holds the afternoon is a separate purchase. A workplace battery already on this desk, at a Bowmanville cement plant, is a different contract: the plant pays nothing up front, and the megawatts are blank.
Analogy: $1,000 and $770 are the stickers that stay. 12 kW is the new size mark, and the live page still shows 10 kW. The adder is a second sticker that comes off at midnight on 30 November, and neither page prints what that sticker was worth. The form pays toward the roof. It does not pay toward a battery.
Good: A program date, a deadline with a clock time, two rates that do not move, a size change with the units named, a live page that still shows the old size, and a plain line that vertical monofacial panels are out.
Bad: The adder's dollars are blank. The news list and the detail page do not share one name for that extra payment. Microgeneration is direct current and the other line is alternating current. The live page still prints 10 kW. $770,000 is our multiplication, and the 50% cap can bind lower. The May wall-mounted removal and the November vertical bifacial addition are easy to mix. No battery.
Ugly: Treating 12 kW as the rule on 5 November. Treating $770 as a new cut. Adding a battery grant this page does not print. Using $770,000 as a cheque. Reading a parking-lot canopy in the building list as permission to ignore the rooftop line. Reading the postal-code adder as a rate.
Soft next step: keep $1,000 and $770 on the rate line, put 12 kW on the size line from 30 November, and leave the adder's dollars blank.
Source: Save on Energy news and updates, program news dated 30 October 2026. Primary for the 30 October posting, the 30 November effective date, the end of Retrofit Regional Adders, the new rooftop axis-tracking and vertical bifacial measures at the same incentives as microgeneration and small-to-medium generation, the move from 10 kW-DC or under to 12 kW-DC or under and from above 10 kW-AC to above 12 kW-AC, the statement that HVAC savings assumptions change with no incentive change, the 11:59 PM EST deadline on 29 November 2026, the 12:00 AM EST start on 30 November for submissions that do not qualify, the use of both "Retrofit Regional Adders" and "Retrofit Adder", and the line that the next update is expected in spring 2027. The same list, in the block headed 29 May 2026, is primary for the 29 May removal of wall-mounted solar and for the 30 June 2026 adjustment of the small-to-medium solar incentive by 10%, from $860 per kW to $770 per kW-AC. Neither block prints an adder rate or a battery. Save on Energy, Retrofit program changes for Fall 2026. Primary for the detail: pre-approved applications remain eligible for a Regional Adder, the postal-code test as the first three characters, the statement that further opportunities for grid-constrained areas will be announced later, the permission to apply now for tracking and vertical bifacial configurations on the existing worksheet, the 30 November portal update, the line that applications already in before 30 November stay on that submission, the statement that vertical monofacial projects do not qualify because they do not align with the savings assumptions, and the statement that the new size lines align with Ontario Energy Board connection-assessment thresholds updated in May 2026. This page does not print the Board's kilowatts, the adder's dollars, or a battery. Save on Energy, solar photovoltaic incentives. Primary for the live categories still printed as up to 10 kW at $1,000 per kW-DC and greater than 10 kW-AC up to 1 MW-AC at $770 per kW-AC, the cap at 1,000 kW-AC and at 50% of eligible project costs including labour and materials, behind-the-meter rooftop solar for commercial, industrial and institutional participants, the building list including parking-lot canopies, owner authorisation for a lessee, the definition of load displacement as solar used for the building's own consumption, the application before a binding commitment with a purchase order as the example, and the 24 months after pre-approval. 1,000 times 770 equals 770,000: that product is our arithmetic. The page does not print $770,000.