Solar Export

How solar export works

When your solar panels produce more power than your home is drawing at that moment, the excess flows backwards through your smart meter and onto the local distribution network. Your meter records this as an export, and your electricity retailer credits you at the agreed feed-in tariff rate.

This happens continuously throughout the day whenever generation exceeds consumption. A household drawing 500W of load while the panels produce 4,000W is exporting 3,500W in real time.

Export metering

Smart meters (interval meters) record import and export separately, typically in 15-minute or 30-minute intervals. Your bill shows total imported kWh (charged at your consumption rate) and total exported kWh (credited at the FiT). Some older homes still have accumulation meters that only measure net consumption - these can’t record export separately and need upgrading for an accurate solar bill.

The economics of export in 2025–26

Export is worth considerably less than it was in the early years of Australian solar. With FiTs at 4–10¢/kWh and import rates at 28–40¢/kWh, exporting power is financially the least desirable use of your solar energy. The priority order for solar generation is:

1. Use it directly in the home at the time of generation (worth full retail rate avoided)
2. Store it in a battery for use when the panels aren’t producing (worth most of the retail rate avoided)
3. Export it to the grid (worth the FiT)

This ranking is why battery storage decisions and load-shifting behaviour matter more now than they did when FiTs were 44–68¢/kWh.

Export as a grid service

Looking at it from the network perspective, household solar export is now a significant and growing source of supply on the grid, particularly during midday on sunny days. This has introduced a new challenge: so much solar is being exported in some regions that midday wholesale electricity prices regularly go negative, and networks are introducing export limits to manage voltage and capacity.

For homeowners, this context explains why the value of battery storage is increasing - capturing solar energy for self-use rather than exporting it at near-zero value during grid oversupply makes better financial sense than it did previously.