Smithers is the far end of our range, 372 km down Highway 16. For larger installs in the Bulkley Valley, and for community and commercial work, it is a drive we are glad to make.
A single small residential array in Smithers is a long way to send a crew, and there are good installers closer to you. Where we are genuinely worth calling is when the job is bigger or more complicated than a straightforward roof: a ground mount, a battery system, an off-grid property, a community or commercial building, or anything that needs an electrical contractor rather than a solar salesperson.
If that is not your job, we will point you somewhere sensible. There is no sense taking a deposit on work we can only get to twice a year.
Smithers is one of the few communities on our list with a long-running Environment Canada station of its own, so we are not extrapolating: roughly 1,621 hours of bright sunshine and 183 cm of snowfall in an average year, at 500 metres. Prince George gets about 1,918 hours and 142 cm. So a little less sun than Prince George and a good deal more snow, though the ground snow load is almost the same: 3.5 kPa against Prince George at 3.4.
Which makes Smithers straightforward on paper. The complication is not the climate, it is the topography.
Hudson Bay Mountain is the variable. The Bulkley Valley is narrow and the ground rises hard on both sides. In December and January the sun tracks low, and how much of it reaches your particular property depends on which side of the valley you are on and what stands between you and the southern sky. Two houses ten minutes apart can differ meaningfully. That is a site measurement, not a map reading, and it is the main thing we are doing when we walk the property.
Smithers also has an unusual amount of accommodation and short-term rental property for a town its size. Those have their own load shape — heavy winter occupancy, light summer — which is close to the least favourable pattern for solar, because it consumes when the array produces least. It does not rule anything out, but it changes the size that makes sense, and that arithmetic goes in the quote.
BC Hydro closed net metering to new customers on 1 July 2026. Under the Self-Generation rate that replaced it, the power you export is bought at 10 cents per kWh and credited on every bill rather than settled once a year.
Rebates are still on the table. Up to $5,000 on solar and up to $5,000 on a battery enrolled in BC Hydro’s Peak Saver program, or up to $1,500 without it. But since 1 June 2026 BC Hydro only pays them when the work is done by a Home Performance Contractor Network member. We are one. If your installer is not, the rebate simply does not get paid.
Want a number before you call? The solar savings calculator uses our own pricing and your actual BC Hydro consumption to size a system and estimate the payback for a home in Smithers.
If we are the right contractor for it, we will quote it. If someone closer is the better fit, we will give you their name.
Nechako Solar is a licensed BC electrical contractor, licence LEL0204111, and a member of the Home Performance Contractor Network (HPCN). You can check that in the HPCN directory. Rebate amounts and rate details are current as of August 2026 and are set by BC Hydro, not by us.
