Today marks the official start of spring, and with it, the months your solar panels will produce more than at any other point in the year. Normally that would mean bigger export credits on your bill. Not anymore.
The Essential Services Commission calculated a minimum feed-in tariff of just 0.04 cents per kilowatt-hour for 2025 – 26, effectively nothing, before the Victorian Government’s deregulation of feed-in tariffs overtook it. Since 1 July 2025, the ESC no longer sets a minimum at all, retailers now set their own rate, with the only rule being it can’t go below $0.00.
If you read our piece on how long solar batteries actually last, this is the other half of that conversation: exporting spring’s extra generation is barely worth doing anymore. Storing it in a battery is, and the gap between those two outcomes has never been wider.
Why Has Victoria’s Feed-In Tariff Basically Disappeared?
Because the grid is flooded with cheap solar at exactly the time your panels are exporting most.
Minimum feed-in tariffs had been falling for years before the regulator stepped back entirely. The Essential Services Commission’s final review calculated a minimum flat rate of just 0.04 cents per kWh for 2025 – 26, down from 3.3 cents the year before, but the Victorian Government’s deregulation of feed-in tariffs took effect from 1 July 2025 before that determination applied, retailers now set their own rate entirely, subject only to a $0.00 floor. The reason the rate fell so low in the first place is straightforward: daytime wholesale electricity prices have collapsed as more Victorian rooftops export at the same time, midday, on a sunny day, so there’s simply less value in another kilowatt-hour hitting the grid at that moment. Solar Victoria’s own guidance acknowledges this directly, framing it as a shift in where the savings come from, not an end to solar’s value.
Does That Mean Spring’s Extra Solar Is Wasted?
Only if there’s nowhere for it to go.
A bigger spring harvest exported at 0.04 cents per kWh is barely worth mentioning. The same energy, self-consumed or stored in a battery and used that evening instead of buying grid power, is worth 25 to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour by comparison. Put a number on it: 10kWh of spring surplus exported at the old minimum earns roughly 0.4 cents, effectively nothing. The same 10kWh stored and used to offset evening grid usage is worth $2.50 to $3.50 that day. Over a full spring and summer, that’s not a rounding error, it’s the difference between a battery that pays for itself and one that doesn’t. That gap is the entire logic behind pairing solar with storage, covered in more depth in our battery ROI guide, and it’s never been wider than it is right now.
What Should You Actually Do With Spring’s Surplus Generation?
Use it, don’t export it, wherever possible.
Spring’s longer, sunnier days are the ideal window to shift power-hungry tasks into daylight hours: running a heat pump hot water cycle at midday, charging an EV while you’re home during the day, or letting a battery fill completely before the evening peak. None of this requires new equipment for most households, it’s a scheduling change that captures value the export tariff no longer offers.
Is It Still Worth Exporting At All?
A little, if you shop around, but it’s no longer the main game.
Some retailers still offer meaningfully better rates than the bare minimum. Standard plans from AGL and EnergyAustralia currently sit around 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, ENGIE up to 11 cents, while providers exposed to wholesale pricing, Flow Power among them, have offered rates as high as 45 cents at times, though those fluctuate with the market and can occasionally turn negative when wholesale prices do. It’s worth checking your own plan against current offers rather than assuming you’re on the bare minimum. But even the better end of that range is a fraction of what the same energy is worth used at home instead, which is why export rate shopping is now a secondary optimisation, not the main lever most households have.
Why a Battery Makes More Sense Now Than It Did a Year Ago
Because the alternative, exporting your surplus, has gotten dramatically worse, while the case for storing it hasn’t stopped improving.
A battery’s value comes from the gap between what exported solar earns and what grid power costs to buy back, and that gap has widened considerably as export rates have fallen toward zero while retail prices haven’t. Spring and summer are exactly when that gap does the most work, longer days mean more surplus generation, and every kilowatt-hour of it is worth dramatically more stored than sent to the grid. If you’re weighing up which system actually makes sense for your home, our guide to the best solar and battery systems is worth reading alongside this one. If you’re already convinced and just want the numbers for your own roof, that’s a conversation worth having before spring’s surplus starts going to waste.
FAQ
Is my feed-in tariff definitely 0.04 cents per kWh?
That was the ESC’s calculated minimum for 2025 – 26, but deregulation overtook it before it applied. Retailers now set their own rate entirely, so it’s worth checking your actual plan rather than assuming any particular figure applies to you.
Should I still export solar if the rate is this low?
If there’s genuinely nowhere else for the power to go at that moment, a small credit beats none. But at 0.04 cents per kWh versus 25 to 35 cents avoided by using or storing it instead, exporting should be the last option, not the default. A battery is what turns “nowhere else for it to go” into “somewhere worth far more.”
Does this mean solar itself is a worse investment now?
No, the value has shifted rather than disappeared. Self-consumption and battery storage now account for most of the return, rather than export credits.
Will feed-in tariffs recover in future years?
Not predictably. Rates are now set by individual retailers based on wholesale market conditions, which are trending toward lower daytime prices as more rooftop solar comes online across Victoria.
How Sunrise Innovations Approaches This
We’re a Clean Energy Council accredited, New Energy Tech Approved Seller, and an approved AlphaESS installer, recognised as a Top 20 Battery Installer in Victoria. When we scope a system now, we size and quote around today’s near-zero export environment, not the export-led economics of a few years ago, so the battery you’re quoted is sized to capture spring and summer’s surplus, not just today’s usage.
With feed-in tariffs this low, the question worth asking isn’t whether to export your solar, it’s how much of it you could be storing instead. See our rebates and incentives page for current battery rebate eligibility, or get a tailored battery quote built around what your spring and summer surplus is actually worth.
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Please Note: The 0.04 cents per kWh figure was the Essential Services Commission’s calculated minimum for 2025 – 26, superseded by the Victorian Government’s deregulation of feed-in tariffs before it took effect. Since 1 July 2025 the ESC no longer sets a minimum feed-in tariff at all, retailers set their own rate subject only t