Solar Panels & Battery Backup in Martintown, Williamstown & Lancaster

Solar, ground-mount arrays and quiet battery backup for South Glengarry farms and homes — installed by a Master Electrician.

South Glengarry is farm and hobby-farm country. Around Martintown and Williamstown you'll find century stone houses along the Raisin River, newer homes on severed lots, dairy and cash-crop farms, and plenty of acreage with barns and drive sheds. Down by Lancaster and the lakefront, it's a mix of village homes and cottages along Lake St. Francis.

That variety means there isn't one standard install here. An older farmhouse might have a steep, complicated roof that isn't worth putting panels on, while the open field beside it is perfect for a ground-mount array. A newer bungalow in Williamstown might suit a simple rooftop system. A farm might want solar on a large barn roof.

We start every South Glengarry job with a site visit to look at the whole property — roofs, outbuildings, open ground, the electrical service and where the power lines come in — before recommending anything.

Your utility and the rebate: Hydro One

Most homes in Martintown, Williamstown and Lancaster are served by Hydro One. That matters, because Hydro One customers can use the Ontario Home Renovation Savings Program (HRSP): up to $5,000 toward solar, and up to $5,000 toward a battery installed together with new solar.

The trade-off is real and worth understanding before you decide: a system that uses the rebate can't be net metered. Instead of sending surplus power to the grid for bill credits, the system is set up for load displacement — your solar and battery power the house first, and you buy less from Hydro One. With a battery, daytime surplus is stored and used in the evening rather than exported.

For many homeowners the rebate is the better deal, especially when backup power is part of the goal. For others with large daytime surpluses, net metering without the rebate can make more sense. We run both scenarios with your actual Hydro One usage data and show you the numbers side by side, so you can choose with the full picture.

For farm properties with more than one service or a separate barn meter, the rebate and the system design need extra care. We'll go through which meter the system connects to and how that affects eligibility before you commit.

Backup power for rural South Glengarry

Out on the concessions, outages last longer. Lines run for kilometres through tree rows and open fields, and after an ice storm or a big summer wind, rural repairs come after the larger towns. The 1998 ice storm left parts of Glengarry without power for weeks, and shorter multi-day outages still happen.

Nearly every rural home here is on a private well. When the power goes out, the well pump stops and so does the water — no drinking water, no flushing, and no water for livestock if you keep animals. Add a sump pump in a wet spring and a freezer full of meat, and an outage gets expensive quickly.

Many people out here already own a portable generator. It works, but someone has to be home to start it, run extension cords or switch a transfer panel, and keep it fuelled overnight. A battery does all of that automatically, with no fuel and no noise. With solar recharging it each day, a properly sized system can carry the essentials — well pump, fridge, freezer, furnace fan, lights — through a long outage. We size the battery and inverter specifically for the starting surge of your well pump, which is the load that trips up undersized systems.

Why a Master Electrician

Ground-mount and farm jobs involve trenching cable, sometimes over long distances, and connecting to services that have been modified over decades. Getting the wire size, grounding and protection right is skilled electrical work, which is why it matters that a Master Electrician designs and builds these systems rather than a subcontracted crew.

True Beacon Solar is owner-operated. The owner is a Master Electrician licensed in Ontario and personally does the installs, so the person who designs your system is the person on your roof and in your electrical panel.

We work under ESA Licensed Electrical Contractor #7016796. Every system gets the permits and Electrical Safety Authority inspection it needs, and we handle that paperwork for you.

Built by our in-house crew — the same four-person team on every install, led on site by Master Electrician Nicholas Piche. You have one point of accountability from the first site visit to the day the system is switched on, and after that if you ever need service.

Frequently asked questions

Are South Glengarry homes eligible for the rebate?

Hydro One customers are. The HRSP offers up to $5,000 for solar and up to $5,000 for a battery installed with new solar, and systems using the rebate can't be net metered.

Is a ground-mount better than a roof system on acreage?

Often. A ground array can face true south at the best angle, avoids roof penetrations on older houses, and is easy to brush off in winter. It costs more for racking and trenching, so we compare both options for your property.

Can a battery run my well pump during an outage?

Yes, if the system is sized for it. Well pumps draw a large surge when they start, so we choose the battery and inverter with that in mind.

Does solar work through a Glengarry winter?

Production drops in December and January and panels shed snow on their own after a storm, especially ground-mounts at a steeper angle. Most of the year's output comes from March to October.

Can you put panels on a barn or drive shed?

Sometimes. It depends on the roof structure, its condition and where the electrical service is. We assess this at the site visit.

Who handles permits and the ESA inspection?

We do. Every install is inspected by the Electrical Safety Authority, and we apply for any building permit South Glengarry requires.