Solar & Feed-in Tariffs

How exporting solar earns you a credit

When your panels produce more than your house is using, the surplus flows out to the grid — and a feed-in tariff is what you're paid for it.

The basic mechanism

Your solar system and your household load are both connected behind the same meter. At any moment:

  • If your panels produce less than you’re using, you draw the difference from the grid as normal, billed at your usage rate.
  • If your panels produce more than you’re using, the surplus exports to the grid, and your retailer credits you at the feed-in tariff rate.

Your bill nets these off: usage charges for what you imported, minus feed-in credits for what you exported. Try it with your own numbers in the Bill Breakdown Visualizer.

Why feed-in tariffs are lower than usage rates — and falling

A feed-in tariff is almost always well below your usage rate (often a fifth or less), and this isn’t retailers being stingy — it directly reflects the NEM wholesale price at the time you export:

The connection to spot prices

Most rooftop solar exports happen around midday — exactly when NEM spot prices are lowest (often near zero or negative) because every other rooftop and solar farm is exporting at the same time. Retailers set feed-in tariffs based on what that exported power is actually worth to them wholesale, so midday export credits reflect midday wholesale prices: low.

Some retailers now offer time-varying feed-in tariffs that pay much more for exports during the evening peak (when spot prices are high and solar is scarce) than for midday exports — worth checking if your retailer offers one, especially if you have a battery that can shift your export timing.

Feed-in tariffs vary by state and retailer

Unlike NEM market rules (set nationally), feed-in tariffs are set by individual retailers, within a minimum benchmark that each state’s regulator publishes annually (reflecting the state’s estimate of the wholesale value of exported solar). This means:

Rates vary by retailer

Two retailers in the same state can offer noticeably different feed-in tariffs — it’s worth comparing when choosing a plan, not just usage rates.

Rates vary by state

Each state regulator (e.g. IPART in NSW, the Essential Services Commission in Victoria) sets its own minimum benchmark based on local wholesale market conditions.

Estimate your export credit

Use the Solar Savings Estimator to get a rough sense of what your system might earn in feed-in credits, based on your system size and your retailer’s rate.

Open the Solar Savings Estimator