Put solar panels on roofs and fields. Fast to start, outdoors, and growing every year.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $54,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $39,000 at the lower end to about $83,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
Up to 2 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$300 to $4,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$54,000
Lower end
$39,000
Upper end
$83,000
Job Bank's national median is $26 an hour, about $54,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($18.65) and upper end ($40) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group, which also takes in other residential and commercial installers.
$30 an hour
The median in British Columbia, about $62,000 a year, the highest in Canada
New Brunswick is next at $27. Nova Scotia is the lowest, at $22.50. Job Bank does not publish a starting rate, and many companies slow down in winter, so first-year income can be uneven.
An electrician ticket
Job Bank's median for electricians is $35 an hour, against $26 for solar installers
Only a licensed electrician can make the final connection to a home's panel and the grid, so the ticket lets you do the whole job.
Roughly, all in
$300 to $4,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
There is no required school, so most installers are hired as a labourer and trained on the crew, and the low end is just boots and a few hand tools. The high end is a short solar installation course paid for up front, a working at heights and fall protection certificate, and your own harness and tools. Many employers pay for the heights certificate, so ask before you book it yourself. Moving on to an electrician apprenticeship later is paid work, with a classroom fee for each school block.
Roughly $300 to $4,000 in all. There is no required school. Most people are hired as a labourer and trained on the crew.
Paid from day one
No tuition to start.
Overtime in summer
Long days from spring to fall when installs peak.
Travel pay on solar farms
Utility-scale projects in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario pay per diems and camp or hotel.
Health and dental
At larger installers and electrical contractors. Small companies often offer little.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Hire on, learn to mount and wire panels, then decide whether to go for the electrician ticket. Quebec has its own route: tap Quebec route to add it.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math and physics help. A driver's licence and comfort on a roof matter most.
Safety tickets
Days
Working at heights or fall protection, plus WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System). One or two days each. Employers often pay.
Get hired as an installer
Weeks
Solar companies and electrical contractors hire labourers each spring. You start by carrying panels and bolting racking to roofs.
Learn the system
1 to 2 years
Racking, panels, DC (direct current) wiring, inverters, batteries. Short manufacturer and college courses fill in the theory.
Optional: electrician apprenticeship
4 to 5 years
Four to five years to a Red Seal Construction Electrician ticket. It is the standard way to move from installer to the person who signs off the job.
Physics
Voltage, current and how a panel turns sunlight into power.
Math
Roof angles, string sizing and load calculations.
Construction technology or shop
You are a roofer and an electrician's helper at the same time.
Environmental science
Understanding why the work matters helps you talk to customers.
Nobody licenses solar installers in Canada. Mounting racking and panels is open to anyone the company hires. The electrical side is different: connecting the system to a building and the grid is electrical work, and in most provinces only a licensed electrician or registered apprentice may do it. Every job also needs an electrical permit and inspection. That is why solar companies are usually electrical contractors, and why the electrician ticket is the big career move.
In Quebec the wiring side of solar is electrician work controlled by the CCQ (Commission de la construction du Québec, the Quebec construction commission), and Hydro-Québec grants only apply when licensed contractors do the job.
Secondary IV courses
Secondary IV or V
No school is set for mounting panels. For the electrician route, the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Electricity needs Secondary IV language, second language and math, or age 18 and the general development test.
Mounting crews
Any time
For Hydro-Québec's LogisVert grant, the company mounting the panels must hold an RBQ (Régie du bâtiment du Québec, the building board) licence in subclass 11.2 or 13.5.
DEP in Electricity (5295, or 5795 in English)
1,800 hours
1,800 hours. It is the way into the electrician trade, which the CCQ controls on construction sites.
Electrician apprenticeship
About 5,300 hours
Get the CCQ apprentice certificate, then four periods of 2,000 hours, 8,000 in all. The DEP counts for its hours plus a 50% bonus, 2,700, which leaves about 5,300 hours.
Qualification exam
Near the end
Set by the CCQ. You can sit it once 85% of your hours are done. Pass and you become a journeyperson electrician.
Connecting systems
With a contractor
For the grant, the inverter and grid connection must be done by a contractor with RBQ licence subclass 16.0 (electrical) who belongs to the body that represents the trade.
Since April 2026 Hydro-Québec pays $1,000 per installed kilowatt, up to 40% of the cost, for home solar panels installed on or after June 30, 2025, through its LogisVert program. Businesses apply through its Efficient Solutions program. Every system needs Hydro-Québec's final authorization to connect to the grid. Hydro-Québec suggests installers with a recognized certification such as NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners). Hydro-Québec aims for 3,000 MW (megawatts) of solar in Quebec by 2035.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Electrician apprenticeship and Red Seal
The single biggest step. Lets you do the connections and run your own crew.
Battery storage training
Home batteries are being installed alongside panels. Fewer people know how to do them well.
EV (electric vehicle) charger installation
Often sold with solar. Short courses, more billable work.
Solar design and sales
Sizing systems, quoting and permit drawings. Office work with commission on top.
Roofing or construction experience
Half the job is being safe and fast on a roof.
A clean driver's licence
Crews drive to sites every day.
Basic fitness
Panels are heavy and awkward, and you carry them up ladders.
Big projects in the Prairies and Ontario hire hundreds of installers for a season to bolt down tens of thousands of panels in a field. The work is repetitive but pays overtime, travel and camp allowances. Some installers chase these projects across the country; others use one season to save money for an apprenticeship.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Load the truck at 7am and drive to the house. Set up ladders and fall protection, mark the rafters, bolt down the racking, then lift and clip in the panels. The electrician on the crew wires the strings to the inverter while you finish the roof. A residential job takes one to three days. In summer you might work ten-hour days; in a Prairie winter you may be laid off or moved to warehouse work.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Canadian Renewable Energy Association says the cost of solar technology fell by more than 83% between 2009 and 2025. That is why panels went from a luxury to a normal home upgrade.
Canada had more than 5 GW (gigawatts) of solar at the end of 2025, and more than 3 GW of it was built since 2020. The Canadian Renewable Energy Association expects wind, solar and storage to double again within a decade.
The federal Canada Greener Homes Initiative, which helped pay for home solar among other upgrades, served more than 50,000 homes before it ended in October 2025. Those homes added about 500 MW (megawatts) of solar.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Electrical and energy first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.