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Trade Playbook
Solar has a gold-rush reputation and a paperwork reality — and the questions cut through the hype: do you need to be an electrician (the racking-vs-wiring split), how the net-metering and interconnection bureaucracy is genuinely half the job, whether the rebate-driven demand is stable, and how a solo installer competes with the national players.
Where it starts
$20–30/hr
Installer / racking crew
Where it tops out
Business income
Solar business owner
Union route
IBEW on utility-scale work
Ontario figures for solar pv installation, from the first day on site to the top of the trade. Approximate, and worth checking against current collective agreement rates and job postings in your region.
| Stage | Pay | What is going on at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Installer / racking crew | $20–30/hr | Mounting and modules — no licence, but Working at Heights is mandatory. |
| Licensed electrician on solar | 309A rates + specialty | |
| Solar sales / system designer | Commission (high) | The in-home sales side is where top earners sit. |
| Solar business owner | Business income | System sales — design, install, interconnect. |
Every figure above is what solar installers get paid. It is not what you charge once you run a solar installation business. Your rate has to carry the hours you are not on the tools, the truck, the tools themselves, WSIB, insurance, the quote you wrote and lost, and the holdback sitting in someone else's account for 60 days. Contractors who set their rate off their old hourly wage are the ones who work every weekend and still cannot say whether the year was profitable.
The step from paid by the hour to paid by the jobGrow the install business, move into the high-paid sales/design side, add battery storage and EV (the next demand wave), or scale into commercial/utility EPC. Storage in particular is reshaping the business — solar-plus-storage is becoming the default offering, and the installers who add it early ride the next curve.
Wage data, union rate sheets, and the places solar installers talk about money openly.
The rates above are the market. The live feed is the market this week: which builders and contractors just pulled a permit or won a contract in Ontario, what they are about to need, and who to call.
Electrician Jobs in Ontario: Who Is Hiring Right NowAEC Stack handles incorporation, WSIB, insurance certificates, quoting, invoicing, and chasing the money, so a solar installation business runs like one with an office behind it.
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