Facing sky-high connection fees; Ontarians go off the grid

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Originally Posted by MikePal

I wonder how those guys that lucked into one of those original FIT programs with Hydro have made out. Selling power back to them at $0.85 /kw was a great deal as long as the equipment maintenance didn't eat to much of it up.

Anyone know anyone and how it worked out. ??

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One of my buddies got in at the right time with a 10kW solar installation at the start. Took 7 years to pay off the build but now he makes about 10k/year off it until the end of his 20 year contract. So first 7 years everything he made went into paying it off followed by 13 years at +/- 10k per year into his pocket. So far as well he has not had any real expenses related to repair but knock on wood that may change but at this point it has paid for itself and he has been in black for a few years now.

Boy if you own property that isn't near the grid and you were hoping to sell it for a new home build, I think you're property value just plummeted. Wonder why Hydro One decided to change their policy? We were allowed one free pole to get power to our camp. The next pole we paid for and it cost $2200 in 1998.

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Originally Posted by DanO

The next pole we paid for and it cost $2200 in 1998.

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I had a new pole put in about 3 yrs ago..it was $2,500..the transformer was FREE. The total cost to hock up a (buried) line to a service panel was about $8,500.