Just around the corner from me a neighbour installed solar panels on his bungalow. Free energy from the sun is becoming more appealing as the cost of everything goes up. Of course, there is the initial cost of the panels and the labour needed to wire them into the house, but affordable financing puts it in reach.

New Brunswickers are an independent lot. The increasingly frequent interruptions of power from the grid caused the ownership of home generators to go viral. Now we are seeing the spread of solar panels on modest homes. That is new.

Our power rates have reached the point where it is demonstrably cheaper to generate electricity from sunlight than to buy it from NB Power. If the financing is accessible and affordable, as is currently provided by the federal government, then more and more people are going to go solar.

Inexpensive plug and play solar panels are now a regular sight hanging from apartment balconies all over Europe. These low-cost panels literally plug into an electrical outlet and add free power to the apartment or house, shrinking power bills as the sun shines. No electrician required. They haven’t quite made it across the Atlantic yet, but when they do, the idea of solar for all will no longer be a pipe dream.

Solar panels are getting common enough that NB Power is contemplating short sheeting the electricity credits system owners currently receive. Currently, for every kilowatt hour of solar electricity a homeowner puts onto the electrical grid, NB Power gives them a credit for a kilowatt hour to use when they need it. In an upcoming application to the Energy and Utilities Board, NB Power is expected to propose crediting less than a kilowatt hour in return for a kilowatt hour supplied by a solarized household. I can see a shipment of King Cole tea ending up in the Saint John Harbour over this one!

Premier Holt committed to introducing a provincial program for solar retrofits in her Speech from the Throne. It will be interesting to see how it squares with NB Power’s unease with the spread of rooftop solar. And not just rooftop: increasingly, farmers are now farming the sun with racks of solar panels laid out on their properties. Some people are adding battery storage so they don’t need to rely on noisy and gassy generators when the power goes out overnight.

Things are rapidly changing for traditional electrical utilities like NB Power. They’re going to have to adapt or be financially forced to do so down the road as customers, big and small, act to reduce or end their reliance on power from the utility.

JD Irving’s plan for its massive pulp and paper mill at Saint John’s reversing falls is to generate its own power by burning biomass to eliminate their dependence on NB Power. Saint John Energy has already replaced 20 percent of the electricity it was buying from NB Power to supply city residents with power generated by its own wind farm, which it can now store in the giant storage battery it acquired.

NB Power will face new financial challenges if the idea of self-generating power catches fire with more businesses and households. There just won’t be enough new electric cars sold to take up the slack demand and their debt will only grow.

New Brunswickers rose up years back to stop the sale of NB Power because they are the people’s power company. Now they need our help again to remake themselves to meet the needs of the people and businesses of today.

It’s time for a public inquiry to lay the options on the table; the benefits and the consequences of change. This is not a discussion for the backrooms. It needs to be held in the light of day, for all to see.

If it takes transferring some of NB Power’s debt onto the provincial account to make the needed transformation possible, then that should be part of the discussion as well. Leaving NB Power tied up in its Gordian Knot is not an option. Braiding its strands into something that looks newish will not solve the problems. It’s time to rip the bandage off and cut them free from their captivity.

David Coon is the Leader of the New Brunswick Green Party and the MLA for Fredericton-Lincoln