Ask most solar owners what they’re being paid for their exported power in 2026, and the answer is usually somewhere between disappointing and confusing. Feed-in tariffs that once ran as high as 44-66c per kWh under early incentive schemes have settled into a much lower, market-based range of roughly 3-10c per kWh, and they keep drifting down as more rooftops export into the grid at the same time each day.
Meanwhile, grid electricity now costs the average household somewhere between 28c and 45c per kWh to buy. That gap, what you earn for selling versus what you pay to buy, is the entire reason home batteries have shifted from a luxury upgrade to a mainstream financial decision. So which actually earns more in 2026: taking the feed-in tariff, or storing your solar in a battery and using it yourself? Here’s the real math.
Quick summary
- Feed-in tariffs across Australia have fallen to roughly 3-10c/kWh in 2026, down from historic highs of 44-66c a decade ago.
- Grid electricity now costs the average household 28-45c/kWh, meaning every kWh you use yourself is worth three to eight times more than a kWh you export.
- A home battery lets you capture that gap by storing midday solar and using it at night, instead of selling it cheap and buying it back expensive.
- With the federal rebate, most right-sized batteries now pay for themselves in roughly 5-8 years. Feed-in tariffs alone were never designed to pay a system off.
- The honest answer: for most solar households in 2026, a battery earns more than chasing a better feed-in tariff, but the two aren’t really in competition. It’s rare that exporting is genuinely the better option.
What feed-in tariffs actually pay in 2026
Feed-in tariff rates vary by state, retailer, and sometimes time of day, but the broad pattern is consistent nationally. Standard export rates typically sit in the 3-10c/kWh range, a steep fall from the 44-66c premium rates offered in the early 2010s to kickstart rooftop solar uptake.
A rough state-by-state picture in 2026 looks like this:
- New South Wales: IPART’s benchmark sits around 4.8-7.3c/kWh, with competitive retailer plans pushing 7-12c.
- Victoria: A regulated minimum applies, generally landing around 8c/kWh.
- South Australia: Lower than the eastern states, typically 5-6c/kWh.
- Western Australia: A time-varying scheme pays roughly 10c/kWh during the 3pm-9pm window and just 2-2.25c outside it, rewarding afternoon and evening generation over the traditional midday peak.
- Tasmania: A regulated minimum around 8.8c/kWh, with some retailers offering slightly more.
- ACT: No mandated minimum, with competitive rates generally between 7-12c/kWh.
The reason these rates have fallen so far isn’t a conspiracy against solar owners. It’s simple supply and demand. With well over four million rooftop solar installations now feeding into the grid at roughly the same time each day, midday power is abundant and cheap on the wholesale market. When wholesale prices are low, the value of your export is low too.
Why self-consumption is worth so much more
Here’s the number that actually matters: every kWh of solar you use yourself avoids the cost of buying that same kWh from the grid at 28-45c. Every kWh you export instead earns you just 3-10c. That’s a gap of roughly three to eight times in favour of using your own power over selling it.
This is the mechanism a home battery exploits. Instead of exporting your midday solar surplus for a few cents and buying grid power back at night for thirty-plus cents, a battery lets you store that surplus and use it after the sun goes down, effectively converting a low-value export into a high-value avoided purchase.
The real comparison: exporting vs storing
Take a simple example. Say your solar system produces 10kWh of surplus power on a typical day, beyond what your household uses in real time.
Exporting it: at a mid-range feed-in tariff of around 6c/kWh, that surplus earns you roughly 60c for the day.
Storing and using it instead: if that same 10kWh offsets grid electricity you’d otherwise buy at around 30c/kWh, it saves you roughly $3.00 for the day, about five times more value from the exact same 10kWh.
Multiply that gap out across a year, and it becomes clear why feed-in tariffs alone were never going to pay off a solar system on their own, and why battery economics have improved so much as the export-to-import price gap has widened.
What a battery actually costs and pays back in 2026
None of this matters if the battery itself doesn’t pay for itself in a reasonable timeframe, so here’s where the federal rebate comes in.
Most CEC-approved batteries qualify for a rebate delivered as a point-of-sale discount through your installer, cutting a meaningful chunk off the upfront cost. As of 2026, a standard 10-14kWh battery typically costs somewhere in the $7,000-$16,000 range installed after the rebate is applied, or roughly $700-$1,000 per usable kWh of capacity.
With that rebate factored in, payback periods for a right-sized system (generally in the 10-14kWh range, enough to cover typical evening usage without oversizing) now commonly land in the 5-8 year range. That’s a significant improvement on the 10-12+ year paybacks that were common just a few years ago, before rebates and the export/import price gap both worked in the battery’s favour.
Sizing matters here. Since May 2026, the federal rebate has moved to a tiered structure that gives the full subsidy rate to batteries up to 14kWh, with reduced support for larger systems. In practice, this makes “right-sizing” a battery to your actual evening usage more financially rewarding than buying bigger than you need, since oversized batteries pay back more slowly even before accounting for the reduced rebate on the extra capacity.
So which one actually wins?
For most solar households, using stored solar to avoid buying grid power will out-earn exporting that same solar for a feed-in credit, simply because the price gap between buying and selling power has grown so wide. A battery, in effect, lets you turn your own export into your own low-cost supply instead of handing it to the grid for a few cents.
That said, a battery isn’t automatically the right call for every household. It tends to make the most financial sense if you:
- Use a meaningful amount of electricity in the evening or overnight, after solar generation has stopped
- Are on a low feed-in tariff, meaning you’re not giving up much by storing instead of exporting
- Face high peak electricity rates, since that’s exactly what a battery lets you avoid
A battery is a weaker bet if your household barely uses power after dark, if you’re already on an unusually generous feed-in tariff plan, or if your solar system is small enough that there isn’t much surplus to store in the first place. In those cases, taking the feed-in credit and skipping the battery investment for now can still be the more sensible move.
Expert tip: Don’t just compare feed-in tariff numbers when shopping for an electricity plan. A high headline export rate is often paired with a higher daily supply charge or usage rate elsewhere on the same plan, which can quietly cancel out the benefit. Compare the total annual cost of a plan (supply charges, usage rates, and feed-in credits combined) rather than chasing the single highest export number, and if you’re weighing up a battery, run the numbers on your actual evening usage rather than your total daily solar generation. The battery only earns its keep on the power you’d otherwise be buying at night, not the power you’re already using in real time during the day.
The bigger picture
The steady decline in feed-in tariffs isn’t a sign that solar has stopped paying off. It’s a sign that the value of solar has shifted from what you export to what you avoid buying in the first place. Feed-in tariffs still play a role, especially for households without a battery or with genuine daytime surplus they can’t otherwise use, but they were never designed to be the main event. In 2026, the real money is in using more of your own solar, and a right-sized battery is currently the most effective tool for doing exactly that.
FAQ
Are feed-in tariffs going to disappear completely? No. They’re not being phased out, but they have shifted from government-funded premium rates to market-based rates that reflect the real-time value of exported power. As rooftop solar continues to grow, that market value is likely to stay low, particularly around the middle of the day.
Is a battery worth it if I already have a good feed-in tariff? It depends on how “good” the rate actually is. Even a generous feed-in tariff of 12-15c/kWh is still well below the 28-45c/kWh you’d pay to buy that power back, so storing and using it yourself is usually still the better deal financially, though the gap is smaller than for households on the lowest tariffs.
How big a battery do I actually need? For most households, a battery sized to cover typical evening and overnight usage (commonly 10-14kWh) delivers the best balance of upfront cost and payback speed. Going significantly larger increases the purchase price faster than it increases usable savings.
Does the federal rebate apply to every battery? It applies to batteries on the Clean Energy Council’s approved list, installed by a CEC-accredited installer. The rebate is applied automatically as a discount on your invoice rather than something you claim separately.
Can I combine a battery with a good feed-in tariff plan? Yes, and this is usually the ideal setup. A battery handles your evening usage first, and any genuine surplus left over after the battery is full still gets exported and earns the feed-in credit, so you’re not giving up export income entirely, just prioritising the higher-value option first.
Key takeaways
- Feed-in tariffs in 2026 are low and getting lower. Standard export rates sit around 3-10c/kWh, with some states as low as 2c off-peak and a handful of premium plans reaching 12-15c.
- Self-consumption is worth far more than export. Using your own solar avoids paying the retail rate (28-45c/kWh), while exporting only earns the feed-in rate (3-10c/kWh). That’s a 3x to 8x gap in value per kWh.
- The federal battery rebate has shortened payback substantially. A right-sized 10-14kWh system now typically pays for itself in 5-8 years, down from over a decade just a few years ago.
- A battery isn’t automatically the better move for everyone. Households with low evening usage, already-low bills, or a genuinely high feed-in tariff plan may still get more value staying export-focused for now.
- The two aren’t really rivals. A battery doesn’t replace your feed-in tariff; it just reduces how much you rely on it by storing power you’d otherwise be selling cheaply.
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