It’s been eight months since Saskatchewan’s solar companies predicted that a shift away from SaskPower’s previous net metering program would decimate their industry.

Now, some say, those warnings have come true.

Brenden Owens, co-owner of Prairie Sun Solar, said the residential solar market has “fallen off a cliff.” His company had eight staff on board at its peak. Now it’s just him, another owner, and one part-time employee.

“We’ve laid off basically all of our other sales staff and our extra labour help,” he said.

“Last year we did probably around 50 to 60 residential systems,” Owens explained. “This year, we’ve done maybe two to three.”

At least he’s still working. He knows of four solar companies that have shut their doors for good.

“I think the industry’s been proven out to be correct, in terms of forecasting what that change from net metering to net billing would do,” said Erwin Heuck, managing director of the Distributed Energy Association of Saskatchewan.

SaskPower’s own data shows that far fewer homeowners have hooked up solar energy systems since it introduced its “revamped” program, which cut the value of credits customers could earn through excess power they send back into the grid. It offers 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour — the price SaskPower pays for power — instead of the 14-cent retail rate under the previous net metering program.

The provincial government got rid of a rebate for 20 per cent of up to $20,000 in installation costs at about the same time in the fall.

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