Feed-in tariffs in 2026: why self-consumption beats exporting

A rooftop solar system earns its keep two different ways, and the difference between them is bigger than most new solar owners expect. Every kilowatt-hour your panels generate either offsets electricity you would otherwise have bought from the grid, or gets exported and paid for at your retailer's feed-in tariff. Confusing the two, or assuming exporting is where the real money is, is one of the most common ways people misjudge how quickly a system will actually pay for itself.

Feed-in tariffs have been drifting downward for several years, and the reason is fairly mechanical rather than any single policy decision. With so many rooftops now generating simultaneously across the middle of the day, the grid is routinely oversupplied with solar exactly when the sun is highest, and that abundance pushes down what retailers are willing to pay for extra exported power at that time. Current rates vary a good deal by state, network and retailer, commonly sitting somewhere in the low single digits of cents per kilowatt-hour up to around ten cents on the more competitive plans, with real variation between flat, variable and time-of-use structures. Because these figures move regularly, check your own plan's current feed-in tariff directly rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere, including one you saw when you first signed up.

Retail electricity prices, the rate you pay to buy power back from the grid, are typically several times higher than any feed-in tariff on offer, and this gap is the entire reason self-consumption tends to matter more than export. A kilowatt-hour used inside your home the moment it is generated offsets a purchase priced at your full retail rate; the same kilowatt-hour sent out to the grid instead earns only the much smaller feed-in tariff. In practical terms, running the dishwasher, washing machine, pool pump or an electric vehicle charger during the hours your system is actually generating captures value at the higher rate, while the same load shifted to the evening after the sun has gone down draws expensive grid power back in, at a rate the feed-in tariff on the exported energy earlier that day never comes close to matching.

Some retailers now offer time-of-use or variable feed-in tariffs that pay noticeably more for exports during the early evening peak, roughly the four-to-nine-o'clock window when household demand across the grid is highest and solar generation has largely tapered off, rather than a flat rate that treats every exported kilowatt-hour the same regardless of when it is sent. Whether this suits you depends on your own export pattern, and it is worth checking a retailer's specific tariff structure, including whether it is genuinely time-based or just a flat number badged as competitive, before assuming a headline rate applies to all your exports.

A growing number of network operators are also moving toward flexible or dynamic export limits, which vary the amount of power you are allowed to send to the grid at different times of day rather than applying one fixed cap around the clock, generally allowing more export capacity outside the traditional midday peak. This is a genuinely evolving area that differs by network, so it is worth asking your installer what applies at your specific address rather than assuming a rule from a different state or a different network operator. A battery, covered in more detail in our separate article, is the other main lever available for shifting your own solar generation into the hours when it is worth the most, whether that means avoiding an evening grid purchase altogether or exporting into a higher time-of-use rate later in the day.

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