Solar Feed-in Tariffs by State in 2026: Why Export Pays Less

If you installed solar expecting the feed-in tariff (FiT) — the credit you get for exporting surplus power to the grid — to carry the payback, the numbers have shifted under you. Across Australia in 2026, export credits are a fraction of what early adopters once enjoyed, and in some plans they're barely above zero. This guide explains what's actually happening, how it varies by state, and why the smartest move now is using more of your own solar rather than chasing the export rate.

What a feed-in tariff is — and what it isn't

A feed-in tariff is the per-kilowatt-hour credit your retailer pays for electricity your panels send to the grid. It is not the same as the price you pay to import power. In 2026 that gap is the whole story: typical feed-in tariffs sit in the range of around 3–10 cents per kWh, while the power you buy back in the evening often costs several times that. Every kilowatt-hour you export and then re-buy after sunset is a losing trade.

Most of the country has retailer-set feed-in tariffs, meaning each retailer chooses its own rate and they have been falling. A few states still set a regulated minimum:

Victoria — a minimum set by the Essential Services Commission (ESC).
Regional Queensland — a minimum set by the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA).
Tasmania — a minimum set by the Office of the Tasmanian Economic Regulator (OTTER).

In the remaining states and for most other plans, there's no floor — the retailer decides. Because the exact cents figure for your state and plan changes and depends on your retailer, confirm the current rate on an offer or your latest bill rather than relying on a number you saw last year.

Why feed-in tariffs have fallen

This isn't a glitch or a one-off cut — it's a structural, multi-year trend, and it's actually a sign solar has worked. So many homes now export at the same time that midday electricity is abundant and cheap. When the grid is flooded with solar between late morning and mid-afternoon, that exported energy simply isn't worth much to a retailer, because they can source daytime power for almost nothing. The result: the generous early tariffs are gone, and midday export value keeps compressing.

You can see the same logic in a newer federal offer, the Solar Sharer scheme, live from 1 July 2026 through participating retailers. On an eligible opt-in plan with a smart meter, it gives a free-power window of 11am–2pm (up to 24 kWh per day). That exists precisely because daytime energy is now plentiful and low-value — the system is nudging people to consume in the middle of the day rather than draw from the grid at night.

Why self-consumption now matters more than export

Here's the shift in mindset. The value of a solar kilowatt-hour today depends on what you do with it:

Use it yourself — you avoid buying a kWh at the retail import price (often 25–40c+, and higher in peak windows).
Export it — you earn roughly 3–10c.

That difference is enormous. Every unit you self-consume can be worth several times more than the same unit exported. So the levers that now drive payback aren't about a better FiT — they're about timing your usage to the sun:

Run dishwashers, washing machines and pool pumps in daylight.
Pre-cool or pre-heat the house while the panels are producing.
Heat water during the day — a heat-pump or solar hot water system (which earns STCs) effectively stores solar as hot water.
Charge an EV midday where your pattern allows.

The honest catch: a home battery is the obvious way to lift self-consumption — store the midday surplus, use it at night, skip both the tiny export rate and the expensive evening import. The federal Cheaper Home Batteries program (an STC-based discount of roughly 30% of battery cost, around $250–$300 per usable kWh) genuinely helps. But a battery is still a large upfront outlay, and with typical paybacks around 8 years, it doesn't pay for everyone. If you're out all day and already export most of your generation, or your usage is small, the maths can fall short. There's no universal answer — it depends on your actual load shape.

What this means for your decision in 2026

Low feed-in tariffs don't make solar a bad investment — they change what makes solar pay. A well-sized system matched to a household that uses power during the day can still deliver a strong return without a single cent of export mattering much. Oversizing purely to export, on the other hand, now makes little sense when that export earns single-digit cents.

Before you act, pin down three things for your situation: the current feed-in tariff on your plan, your import rate and whether you're on time-of-use (peak is commonly around 2–8pm, later in some states), and how much of your generation you actually use versus export. Those three numbers decide whether your best next step is changing your habits, resizing, adding a battery, switching plans — or doing nothing at all.

We don't sell panels, batteries or electricity plans, so we've got no reason to talk up the feed-in tariff or push a battery you don't need. We model your real usage against your real rates and tell you what genuinely pays for your home — even when the answer is "keep what you've got".

Want to know what actually pays for your place?

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Figures in this guide are current at the date of publication and indicative only — rebate and certificate values change over time (federal battery certificates step down each January and July), and state schemes are amended often. Confirm the current numbers for your situation before you commit. This is general information, not personal financial advice.