HomeSolarBatteryEV ChargersCalculatorAbout(780) 200-5265Free Assessment →
Athabasca Landing · Gateway to the North · ATCO Electric

Solar, all the way up here.

Athabasca was the jumping-off point for the whole north — the Landing where the river highway began. We bring the same idea to your roof: a clean, modern way to get ahead of rising northern power bills. LONGi panels, EP Cube batteries and master-electrician installs, two hours up Highway 2 from our Edmonton shop.

★★★★★ 5.0 on Google / 500+ Alberta installs / Master Electrician / Licensed & insured
PJ
Researched and maintained by the Stellar Upgrades team in Edmonton · reviewed by , Founder & President · Updated June 2026
MP 01 Why Athabasca

Long northern days do the work.

Don't let the latitude fool you. Athabasca pulls in over 2,300 hours of sunshine a year — on par with Edmonton — and the long northern summer days mean your panels produce for hours on end while the credits build. Cold helps, too: solar panels run more efficiently in low temperatures, so a bright sub-zero day in the boreal is a genuinely productive one.

What makes the math work up here is the bill itself. Northern power carries higher distribution costs than the city, so every kilowatt-hour you generate yourself is worth more in Athabasca than the same panel would save in Edmonton.

MP 02 Your utility

It's ATCO Electric up here.

Your wires (distribution) company in Athabasca is ATCO Electric — the utility for north and east-central Alberta. They own the poles and your meter, and they're who we file your micro-generation paperwork with. Alberta's retail side is deregulated, so you keep whichever electricity retailer you like.

Net metering is province-wide and simple: ATCO swaps in a bi-directional meter, every surplus kilowatt-hour you export is credited kWh-for-kWh, and unused credits roll forward for twelve months — banking the long summer surplus to spend across the short days of winter.

Get the distributor right

Name the wrong utility on the application and it stalls before it starts. We handle the ATCO micro-generation filing end to end.

MP 03 A forward town

Home of Canada's open university.

Athabasca thinks ahead — it's the home of Athabasca University, the country's pioneer in open, online education. Solar fits that mindset: a long-horizon investment that quietly pays for itself, raises a home's value, and locks in your energy cost for 25 years and more while grid rates keep climbing. We size every system to your real twelve months of ATCO bills, not a brochure.

MP 04 The numbers

What it costs, plainly.

Our cash rate is $2.80 per watt on a typical install; smaller systems cost a little more per watt as the fixed costs spread over fewer panels. Cash earns the best price, but $0-down financing through Financeit, mortgage roll-in and HELOC options are all on the table. Critter guard and a lifetime leak-proof roof guarantee are included.

Starter
$16–20k
~5 kW · 6,000 kWh/yr
Standard
~$21k
7.5 kW · 9,000 kWh/yr
Larger
~$28k
10 kW · 12,000 kWh/yr
Acreage
$42k+
15 kW+ · ground-mount
MP 05 Backup power

When the grid blinks, you don't.

Rural northern lines see more frequent and longer outages than the city — winter storms, spring break-up flooding along the river valley, the occasional summer system. Pair your solar with an EP Cube battery and the house switches over automatically in under 20 milliseconds, keeping the heat, fridge and sump pump running while the grid is down. Out here, that energy security is worth as much as the savings.

MP 06 The area we cover

Town, riverfront and the county.

01

Town of Athabasca

Established homes above the river and newer streets toward the university — straightforward rooftop work on most of the housing stock.

02

Riverfront & the valley

Homes along the Athabasca and Tawatinaw. We map the sun path and tree line before we design, and flush-mount to keep the view.

03

Athabasca County acreages

Open rural land that's ideal for a ground-mount sized to the house, the shop and a well pump together.

04

Boyle, Colinton, Grassland & Wandering River

Nearby hamlets and farms across the county — rooftop in the village, ground-mount on the quarter.

Reviews

Every install, another five-star story.

★★★★★

The entire process was completed in a timely and efficient manner.

Harry S. · Verified Google review
★★★★★

Had a great experience with Stellar Upgrades. The team was knowledgeable, professional, and took the time to explain everything clearly.

Christine · Verified Google review
★★★★★

Best company we dealt with — true professionals, and the best pricing for what they actually deliver.

Alexendra · Verified Google review
? Questions

Solar in Athabasca, answered.

Your wires (distribution) utility in Athabasca is ATCO Electric — the company for north and east-central Alberta, not FortisAlberta. ATCO owns the poles and your meter. Retail electricity in Alberta is deregulated, meaning your choice of retailer stays yours. Once your solar is connected, ATCO installs a bi-directional meter and Alberta's Micro-Generation Regulation puts you on net metering — each surplus kWh you send out earns a kWh-for-kWh credit that banks for up to 12 months toward winter.
For a typical 7–8 kW household system, our cash price works out to $2.80 per watt. A smaller 3–6 kW array costs a touch more per watt since the fixed costs are split across fewer panels, which puts a 5 kW system around $16,000–$20,000. Big acreage and ground-mount projects run $40,000–$50,000+. Critter guards and a lifetime leak-proof roof guarantee come standard at the cash price, and $0-down Financeit financing is on offer. Because northern distribution rates run high, the savings per kWh are bigger here than in the city.
Absolutely. Athabasca receives similar annual sunshine to Edmonton — over 2,300 hours a year — and the long northern summer days build big net-metering credits that carry through winter. Cold actually helps, since panels run more efficiently in it. What drives payback is sunshine hours and the price of power, and Athabasca has plenty of sun and higher-than-city rates.
Rural northern lines experience more frequent and longer outages than urban centres, especially during winter storms and spring flooding along the river valley. Pairing solar with an EP Cube battery means your home switches to battery power automatically in under 20 milliseconds during an outage — keeping heat, fridge and sump pump running while the grid is down. For many Athabasca homeowners that resilience is worth as much as the savings.
Yes — we cover the Town of Athabasca and all of Athabasca County, including Boyle, Colinton, Grassland and Wandering River. In town it's usually a rooftop install; on county acreages we often build a ground-mount angled for ideal production and sized to offset the house, a shop and a well pump together. We handle the engineering and the ATCO micro-generation application either way.
Free assessment

See your Athabasca numbers.

Fifteen minutes, no obligation. We size a system to your ATCO bills and give you the real figures. If solar isn't a fit for your property, you'll hear it from us first.

No spam. PJ gets back to you personally inside a day.

★★★★★ 5.0 on Google · 500+ Alberta installs · Master Electrician on every job

✓ We're on it.

Expect a call from our Edmonton office within the next 24 hours.

Get ahead of the
northern power bill.

Athabasca's rates aren't getting cheaper. Put the long summer days to work and let your roof carry the bill for the next 25 years.

See if solar makes sense
Athabasca · Bills & Rates

Why is your Athabasca power bill so high?

Less than half of a Athabasca electricity bill is the power you actually used. The rest is delivery — transmission, distribution (including a fixed daily charge), rate riders and the municipal local access fee — none of which you can shop away by switching retailers. Our line-by-line breakdown shows exactly where your money goes in Athabasca, and the honest version of what rooftop solar zeroes out (the energy charge) versus what it doesn’t (the fixed connection costs).

Read the Athabasca power-bill breakdown → Get a free Athabasca bill review →
Call NowFree Assessment