Solar Feed-in Tariffs in NSW 2026: What Erina Homeowners Actually Earn
In 2026, the typical NSW solar feed-in tariff sits between 4 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour, a long way from the 50+ cents that dominated the early days of rooftop solar. Most Erina homeowners are surprised when their first power bill arrives and the export credit looks smaller than they expected. Understanding how feed-in tariffs actually work, and where they fit in the broader return on your solar investment, is the difference between feeling let down by your system and using it strategically.
### What a feed-in tariff actually is
A feed-in tariff is the rate your electricity retailer pays you for every kilowatt hour your solar system exports to the grid. When your panels produce more power than your home is using at that moment, the excess flows back through your meter and out into the wider network. Your retailer logs the export and credits your account at the agreed feed-in rate.
The key word is *excess*. Solar power that your home consumes directly never touches the grid and never earns a feed-in tariff, but it offsets electricity you would otherwise have bought at the much higher retail rate. That distinction matters: every kilowatt hour you self-consume is worth roughly three to six times more than every kilowatt hour you export.
### Current 2026 NSW rates
Feed-in tariff rates change regularly and vary between retailers. As of 2026 in NSW, the typical range is:
- Standard plans: 4 to 8 cents per kWh exported - Solar-friendly plans: 8 to 12 cents per kWh exported, sometimes higher for the first few kWh per day - Time-of-export plans: Some retailers offer higher rates for exports during specific peak demand windows (e.g. afternoon peak), and lower rates outside those windows
The Australian Energy Regulator and the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) publish reference benchmarks each year, but actual rates are set by individual retailers and are competitive. Reviewing retailer offers annually is worth doing, the gap between the best and worst feed-in tariffs can be several cents per kWh.
### Why feed-in rates are lower than your purchase rate
If you buy electricity from the grid at 28 to 35 cents per kWh in 2026, why do retailers only credit you 5 to 10 cents for the power you send back? The answer comes down to three things:
1. Network charges. A large portion of your retail electricity bill pays for the poles, wires, and infrastructure that get electricity to your home. Solar exports don't bypass those costs, they actually use the same network.
2. Wholesale electricity prices. Retailers buy bulk electricity at wholesale rates, which sit closer to the feed-in tariff range than retail prices. When you export, you're effectively selling at wholesale.
3. Oversupply during sunny hours. When thousands of NSW homes are exporting at the same time on a sunny midday, wholesale prices drop sharply, sometimes to zero or below. Retailers have to absorb that risk, which keeps feed-in offers conservative.
### How to maximise your feed-in returns
The biggest lever isn't the feed-in rate itself, it's how much of your solar production you self-consume versus export. A few practical ways to shift the balance:
- Run high-load appliances during the day. Pool pumps, dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers all run at lower cost when powered by your own solar rather than imported grid electricity. - Time your hot water. A heat pump or electric hot water system on a daytime timer can soak up significant solar production at zero export cost. - Pre-cool or pre-heat the house. Running aircon or reverse-cycle heating during peak solar hours stores comfort for the evening. - EV charging on daytime solar. If you have an electric vehicle, scheduling charging during solar peak hours converts what would have been exports into vehicle range.
These behavioural changes alone can lift the financial return on a solar system by 20 to 40 per cent without changing the hardware.
### What happens when you add a battery
A home battery stores excess solar production for use later in the day, instead of exporting it. The economics of batteries depend heavily on the difference between your feed-in tariff (what you'd earn exporting) and your retail rate (what you avoid paying when discharging the battery in the evening).
In rough terms: if you export at 6 cents per kWh and buy at 32 cents, every kWh you cycle through a battery is worth around 26 cents to you instead of 6 cents, a 4x improvement on the value of that solar production. The catch is the upfront battery cost and lifespan, which determines whether the lifetime savings outweigh the install cost.
### Frequently Asked Questions
#### Can I change my electricity retailer to get a better feed-in tariff?
Yes. You can switch electricity retailers at any time, and there are no installation changes required to your solar system. The new retailer simply takes over your meter readings and applies their tariffs. Compare offers regularly, feed-in rates between retailers can differ significantly.
#### Do feed-in tariffs apply if I'm not home during the day?
Yes. The system exports automatically whenever production exceeds your home's consumption, regardless of whether you're home. Empty-house exports earn the feed-in tariff just like any other export, but they're significantly less valuable than self-consumed solar, so the financial case for shifting consumption to daytime hours is stronger for households that are typically out during the day.
#### Is there a cap on how much I can export?
Most NSW connection agreements limit residential solar exports to 5 kW per phase. Systems sized larger than this can still operate, but export-limiting software prevents them from sending more than the approved amount back to the grid. The limit doesn't restrict how much solar your home can self-consume.
#### Will feed-in tariffs continue to decline?
Most industry forecasts expect feed-in rates to remain low or trend lower as more rooftop solar feeds the grid during sunny hours. That's why current solar investment economics increasingly favour self-consumption strategies (including batteries) over export-heavy systems. Designing a system around how your household actually uses electricity is more valuable than maximising export volume.
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