Canada’s Nova Scotia gets residential solar PV investment fund

With the primary purpose of financing residential PV in Canada’s province of Nova Scotia, the Solar Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF), dubbed Solar Scotia Energy, has recently met its minimum funding needed to start and to date has raised nearly one million dollars.

The CEDIF fund is intended to help finance the installation of solar panels on more than 100 homes, offering a specific funding model that ensures growing retirement savings and reaping the benefits of tax incentives.

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Working towards the mass adoption of solar PV in Nova Scotia, Kentville-based company Nova Solar Capital has launched Solar Scotia Energy, a Solar Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF) to help financing the installation of solar panels on more than 100 homes, offering a specific funding model that ensures growing retirement savings and reaping the benefits of tax incentives.

As the largest residential solar project ever undertaken in Atlantic Canada, the CEDIF is offering homeowners an opportunity to finance the installation through their retirement funds and receive tax benefits from doing so, while meanwhile growing their savings as the profits flow back into their pension funds, while decimating their power bills.

The lease rate is an attractive 3.5% fixed over a 10-year term. At the end of the lease, homeowners can buy the system for a $50 fee to transfer ownership and continue to generate free electricity for the remaining life of the system and an additional 15 to 20 years.

The financing program is available for three standard solar panel packages: $16,500 for a 16-panel 4.48 kW system, $30,000 for a 32-panel 8.96 kW system, and $44,000 for a 13.44 kW system.

Moreover, the fund seeks to foster the local solar equipment manufacturing industry, as the systems included in the CEDIF program will be sourced from a Nova Scotia company rather than through distributors in Ontario or elsewhere.

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The closing data for investment in the Solar Scotia Energy CEDIF is 14th of September.

With a renewable energy target of 40% by 2020 in sight, Nova Scotia is aiming to reduce its reliance on coal, as the provincial electricity prices at $0,16/kWh remain above the national average of $0.122/kWh.

Although the province has no solar PV incentive program, Nova Scotia has an enhanced net metering scheme, which comprises wind turbines, solar panels and even small hydro and biomass generators, whose maximum size does not exceed 1 MW.

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