The solar feed-in tariff, and why chasing it is the wrong move.

The 30-second take

• A feed-in tariff (FiT) is the credit your retailer pays per kilowatt-hour you export to the grid. It is a credit on your bill, not a payment into your account.
• It keeps falling. IPART’s NSW benchmark range dropped to 3.4–6.5c/kWh for 2026–27, down from 4.8–7.3c the year before.
• Only some states regulate a minimum. Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and parts of Queensland have a regulated or scheme-set rate; NSW, South Australia and the ACT leave it to retailers.
• Two states — NSW and South Australia — now price exports by time of day, so what you are paid depends on when you export.
• The number that matters more is what you avoid paying. Every kWh you use yourself is worth the full retail rate; every kWh you export is worth the FiT. The gap between those two is the whole modern argument for a battery.

What a feed-in tariff actually is

Your solar panels produce power. Your house uses some of it as it is produced. Whatever is left over flows out to the grid, your meter records it as an export, and your retailer credits your bill at a rate per kilowatt-hour. That rate is the feed-in tariff.

Two things about it surprise people. It is a credit against your bill rather than cash, so if you export more than you consume you generally end up with a credit balance rather than a payment. And it is set by your retailer under whatever rules your state imposes — it is not a government payment, and it is not fixed for the life of your system.

Why it keeps falling

Feed-in tariffs were generous when rooftop solar was rare. Exported solar was scarce, valuable, and worth paying for. Australia then installed more rooftop solar per person than anywhere else on earth, and in the middle of the day there is now more of it than the grid wants.

The price follows. IPART’s benchmark range for New South Wales fell to 3.4–6.5c/kWh for 2026–27, from 4.8–7.3c the year before. That is the direction across the market, and the pattern behind every recent policy change is the same: less reward for exporting, more support for storing and shifting.

“Exported midday solar used to be scarce. It is now the most abundant electricity in the country, and it is priced like it.”

Who sets the rate where you live

This is the structural part, and it changes far more slowly than the cents do.

• Victoria no longer has a minimum. The Essential Services Commission stopped setting one from 1 July 2025 after the Electricity Industry Act was amended; retailers set their own rate, which cannot be below zero. Our Victoria guide has the detail.
• Tasmania has a regulated rate set by the Tasmanian Economic Regulator.
• Western Australia runs a scheme rate rather than a retail market — the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme, with a higher afternoon rate and a low rate the rest of the day.
• Queensland splits: regional Ergon customers are on a regulated rate, while south-east Queensland is retailer-set.
• New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT have no regulated minimum. IPART and equivalents publish benchmarks, but retailers set their own numbers and compete on them.
• Northern Territory pays a standard rate through Power and Water, with legacy customers on much older, much higher terms.

Because the cents move every year and often every offer, this guide does not publish a table of them. The state guides carry the current 2026–27 figures — New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia — and the 1 July 2026 changes are collected in our news coverage.

Time-of-day exports, and the “sun tax”

A flat feed-in tariff is becoming the exception. New South Wales and South Australia now price solar exports by time of day, which means the same exported kilowatt-hour is worth different amounts depending on when it leaves your house.

The logic is unglamorous but sound: midday exports are worth little because everyone is exporting, and late-afternoon exports are worth a lot because demand peaks after the sun drops. Some networks have gone further and introduced charges for exporting during the glut — the arrangement the press labelled the "sun tax". It is better understood as the grid finally pricing the difference between useful and unhelpful solar.

What it means practically: a system pointed slightly west, or a battery that holds midday output back until the evening, is now worth more than it was under a flat tariff. Orientation and timing have become part of the economics rather than an installer's afterthought.

The number that actually decides whether solar pays

Here is the arithmetic that gets lost in feed-in tariff shopping. When you use a kilowatt-hour your own panels produced, you avoid buying it — so it is worth the full retail rate you would otherwise have paid. When you export the same kilowatt-hour, it is worth the feed-in tariff.

Retail rates are several times feed-in rates. That gap is the whole modern case for solar, and it is why self-consumption beats export every time. It is also, precisely, the case for a battery: a battery does not create energy, it moves your own midday production into your evening, converting each stored kilowatt-hour from a low-value export into a full-value avoided purchase.

• Do not choose a retailer on feed-in tariff alone. A headline 12c FiT on a plan with high daily supply and usage charges routinely costs more over a year than a 5c FiT on a cheap plan.
• Compare whole-of-bill, not one line. Run your actual usage through both offers.
• Check the cap. Some high-FiT offers only pay the headline rate on the first few kWh exported per day.
• Check whether it is time-varying, and when your export actually happens.
• Shift load into daylight — dishwasher, washing, pool pump, hot water. Every kWh moved is worth the retail rate rather than the tariff.

Sizing your system around export income is the mistake this guide exists to prevent. Size it around your own consumption, then treat exports as a modest bonus. Get matched with 2-3 vetted solar installers — typically 2+ years in business, with a track record of decent reviews — and ask each of them to model self-consumption rather than export credits.

Read next

• Everything that changed on 1 July 2026
• Two-way export pricing, explained
• Are solar batteries worth it?
• Federal solar and battery rebates
• What size solar system you actually need

Sources

• ipart.nsw.gov.au — solar feed-in tariff benchmarks to 2026–27 (3.4–6.5c/kWh)
• esc.vic.gov.au — Victorian minimum feed-in tariff
• wa.gov.au — Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme
• energy.gov.au — solar feed-in tariffs
• aer.gov.au — Default Market Offer 2026–27