The solar panel has become the symbol of the energy transition. We picture it on every roof, and the energy problem solved. The reality, in the Nothern Green Mountains, is more interesting — and more useful to understand before spending a dollar.
Why solar here?
Unusual question! Elsewhere, photovoltaics are installed to replace electricity made from coal or gas. But our grid — Hydro-Québec's — is already hydroelectric, and so already largely decarbonized. In Québec, putting up panels to "go green" or to cut the carbon footprint of your electricity use is therefore not a relevant motive.
That doesn't mean solar has no place here. It means you have to choose it for the right reasons. Here, those reasons are resilience (keeping power when the grid goes down — which happens during our ice and wind storms) and sovereignty (producing part of your own energy, on your own roof, understanding your system). It's a shift in perspective that completely changes what you should install, and why.
Before the panels: sufficiency, and the right energy for the right use
The most resilient kilowatt-hour is the one you never have to produce. Insulating, capturing the sun's heat directly for warmth, using thermal mass: all of this cuts demand before we even talk about electricity.
And there's a simple principle, often forgotten: you shouldn't make electricity — a high-grade form of energy — only to degrade it straight into heat. Heating water or a room is done better with heat (solar thermal, wood) than with a photovoltaic panel. PV is valuable for what only electricity does well: turning a motor, a pump, electronics, lighting. Reserving solar electricity for those uses is already getting the most out of it.
Understanding a PV system
A photovoltaic system isn't a fixed thing: you can build it many ways, with more or fewer components. Two distinctions help you find your bearings. First, production (the panels) is not storage (the batteries): two distinct functions, and you can have one without the other. Second, direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) are two forms of electricity with different qualities and uses — and moving from one to the other takes equipment and costs a little energy. These building blocks combine into a few typical setups; let's look at the main ones.
Daylight drive (aka direct drive)
Direct drive from the sun: since the electricity coming out of PV panels is DC, you connect DC loads directly that can run during the day — mainly motors to pump water, ventilate, run tools. Zero batteries, zero conversion electronics, almost nothing that can break. It fits within a DC micro-grid. It's the most low-tech and durable solar there is. Its limit is obvious: it works when there's sun, not at night. A fine demonstration of this principle: Living Energy Farm.
Net metering
Your summer surpluses run the meter backward and come back to you later as credits on your electricity bill. It's a billing arrangement with Hydro-Québec — not a type of equipment, and it can be done with or without storage (batteries). Economically attractive, and it can avoid the footprint of batteries. On the other hand, it requires a whole layer of technology that daylight drive does not — an inverter that converts the panels' direct current into alternating current (the grid's and the home's), a bidirectional meter, certified interconnection equipment, and an agreement with Hydro-Québec — so more cost, more dependency, and more points of failure. Hydro-Québec's explanations on self-generation and net metering.
Beware: a grid-tied, net-metered system without a storage or backup component gives you no electricity during an outage. For safety reasons, it shuts off along with the grid. If your goal is resilience, that detail changes everything.
Storage — optional but very useful
Adding a storage device is optional, but it's this layer that provides real autonomy and backup when the grid goes down — exactly the resilience objective. That said, the price is real: higher cost, complexity, replacing the batteries after a few years, and above all an ecological extraction footprint (lithium, metals) that it would be dishonest to ignore. The good news: other chemistries, less hungry for critical minerals, are arriving. The most mature is sodium-ion: no lithium or cobalt, made from abundant materials, tolerant of extreme cold (down to −40 °C, well suited to Québec) and commercialized at scale only recently — mainly for stationary storage, a good fit for home projects. Its lower energy density makes it bulkier for the same capacity, a minor flaw for a fixed battery. Finally, storage isn't the only backup device during an outage: a (gas) generator can play that role when there are no batteries.
In short, storage is justified by your objectives — not by default.
What this means, concretely
Let's be clear: meeting all your electricity needs with solar isn't realistic here. It would take a radical cut in consumption — and even then, our winter is long and very low on sunlight, precisely when demand peaks. Solar PV is not a standalone source in our region: it's a complement, in its rightful place within a well-designed energy system.
Our position, openly held: first sufficiency and well-managed heat (insulation, passive design, wood); then solar in the right place. Daylight drive in direct current for daytime uses — simple, frugal, low-tech. Grid-tied self-generation with net metering to lighten the bill, with a storage layer only if you want considered outage backup. This isn't a universal truth: it's a reading through the lens of our values and our territory — the rural region of the Northern Green Mountains.
Come discuss it and ask your questions at our workshop Photovoltaics 101 — July 19: we'll see the difference between these systems, what suits your situation, and the current terms with Hydro-Québec.
Author: Olivier Côté-Thibault, co-founder of Résilience Locale
The author stands behind the argument, the ideas, and the choices in this article, drawn from his research for Résilience Locale. The first draft was written with the assistance of an AI (Claude), then revised and edited by the author. As a matter of principle, we always disclose our use of AI.