Not surprisingly, the rebate has been running red-hot, with the government reporting in March that 250,000 home batteries have already been installed across Australia since July.

This solar stampede has already chewed up much of the Program’s initial $2.3 billion budget way ahead of schedule. 

The good news is the government has since increased the budget to a whopping $7.2 billion across the next four years. 

The bad news is the individual battery rebate will now be smaller – but as it’s designed to benefit more people, it is probably fairer all around.

To ensure the budget lasts through to the intended 2031 end date, the government is implementing new changes to the rebate’s rates and conditions, effective from 1 May 2026.

Find out what’s changing and how it might impact your battery plans below.

On this page:

• New battery rebate changes
• Rebate eligibility criteria
• Battery costs after the rebate
• How long does a battery take to pay itself off?
• Electricity savings and payback periods with rebate
• Additional state and territory battery schemes
• How virtual power plants can reduce your bills

Battery rebate changes from 1 May

We’ll get into the technical nuts and bolts of the changes below, but the top line is the revised rebate will now:

1. decrease every six months as opposed to yearly (to reflect falling battery prices over time)
2. change its ‘per kWh’ discount on batteries from a flat rate to a tiered system based on the size of the battery installed.

Change #1: Rebate rates decrease over time

As part of these new changes, the rebate’s value (measured in Small-scale Technology Certificates, aka STCs, which are the same ‘credits’ applied to solar panels) will now decrease every six months rather than annually, and at a higher rate than previously planned. 

When the rebate launched last July, it paid $372 per kWh for a battery installation, and then $366 in January to April earlier this year. From May, this is the new rate schedule below.

Note: Expect to lose 10% of your rate to admin fees.

• May–Dec 2026: $272 per kWh
• Jan–Jun 2027:  $228 per kWh
• Jul–Dec 2027: $208 per kWh
• Jan–Jun 2028: $184 per kWh
• Jul–Dec 2028: $164 per kWh
• Jan–Jun 2029: $144 per kWh
• Jul–Dec 2029: $124 per kWh
• Jan–Jun 2030: $104 per kWh
• Jul–Dec 2030: $84 per kWh

Figures supplied by our friends at SolarQuotes. If you want to see the exact specific STC Factor rates, view them in the following section.

Change #2: Rebate now depends on battery size

From 1 May, the rebate will switch from a flat ‘per kWh’ discount to a tiered rate system according to battery size. The government says this will maintain a discount of around 25% across small, medium and large batteries. 

Under the previous rules, some residents super-sized their battery systems because a 40–50kWh system could earn a discount of 40–50%. Industry critics argued this drained rebate funds quicker and incentivised people to get systems bigger than they actually needed or could ever charge properly.

From May, the STC Factor rate will depend on the battery capacity installed:

• Small: 0–14kWh capacity: STC Factor applied at 100%.
• Medium: 14–28kWh capacity: STC Factor applied at 60%.
• Large: 28–50kWh capacity: STC Factor applied at 15%.

Video: The federal battery rebate explained

Battery rebate eligibility criteria

Currently to be eligible for the rebate, the battery must:

• be installed after 1 July 2025
• have a nominal capacity of 5–100kWh, but the rebate only applies to the first 50kWh of usable capacity
• be installed alongside new or existing rooftop solar
• be on the Clean Energy Council (CEC)
• be fitted by an installer accredited by
• be capable of joining a virtual power plant (VPP) if it’s an on-grid system (though actual participation is optional)
• be claimed once per property – however, if you own multiple properties, you can get separate discounts for each.

Note: The federal government’s separate solar panel rebate only applies to the panels in the installed system, not the battery. However, you can apply for both discounts together, plus applicable state or territory incentives, to really supercharge your savings.

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

Battery costs after the rebate

Costs vary significantly for solar home batteries, but generally, the bigger the battery capacity, the more you can expect to pay.

Since the launch of the federal rebate, the ‘average’ size of batteries being installed has increased dramatically, with a battery exceeding 20kWh quickly becoming the new norm.

Here are approximate battery costs (after the current federal rebate) for common sizes, including basic installation. Prices are based on information from our solar partners, SolarQuotes.

• 10kWh storage: $7000–$11,000 installed
• 15kWh storage: $11,000–$15,000 installed.
• 20kWh storage: $14,000–$19,000 installed
• 30kWh storage: $18,000–$22,000 installed
• 50kWh storage: $24,000–$30,000 installed

Keep in mind, a more complex installation can increase costs considerably, given that architectural and technical factors can increase the time, work and components a job requires. See our guide to finding a good solar installer.

How long does a battery take to pay itself off?

It’s a tricky question and one that depends on multiple factors including your solar/battery set-up, energy consumption and, most vitally, electricity costs and additional rebates in your state or territory, which can vary a lot.

For a long time, home batteries didn’t make complete economic sense. They were relatively expensive and the payback time was often longer than the battery’s warranty period, which is typically 10 years.

But with the new federal rebate promising a discount of more than 25%, the maths is looking a lot more attractive, depending on the aforementioned factors.

Electricity savings and payback periods with rebate

Calculating your own possible payback period can be mind-boggling, but have shared this helpful general guide comparing electricity savings and simple payback periods (with the rebate) by state and territory.

You’ll notice payback times vary a lot depending on where you live. That’s due to your state and territory’s electricity prices, feed-in tariffs and weather.

For example, Adelaide’s payback period is the shortest because they have high electricity prices, while Hobart’s is the longest, thanks to relatively cheap electricity and high solar feed-in tariffs.

Additional state and territory battery schemes

As well as the federal initiative, here are the current battery-focused rebates or loan schemes available by state and territory. These can be combined with the federal rebate for greater savings.

ACT: Sustainable Household Scheme

Canberra locals can access a low-interest loan (currently 3%) from $2000 to $15,000 for home energy improvements, including household batteries, electric heating and cooling systems, hot water heat pumps, EVs and more.

Over the scheme’s lifespan, you can install one product or several products from the list of eligible products – together, these can be valued at up to $15,000. Zero-interest loans are available to eligible concession card holders under the Home Energy Support Program. 

NSW: Virtual power plant (VPP) Incentive

From 1 July 2025, the NSW government has increased the incentive to up to $1500 to encourage more households and small businesses to install a battery and connect to a virtual power plant. The incentive varies by the size of the battery and can be combined with the federal battery rebate. 

Northern Territory: Home and Business Battery Scheme (closed)

NT homeowners, businesses and nonprofit organisations can apply for a grant to buy and install batteries and inverters. Grants can be used to buy solar panels too, but must be paired with a battery.

Eligible applicants can access a grant of $450 per kilowatt hour of usable battery system capacity, up to a maximum grant of $6000. Homeowners that own a business can apply for both their home and business.

Note that the funding cap for this scheme has been reached and it is closed for new grants. Stay tuned for updates in case this changes.

South Australia: Home Battery Scheme (closed)

Offering up to $6000 off a battery, South Australia’s HBS was one of the earliest and most successful battery programs, but sadly ceased in 2022. Instead, the state government has focused on its emPowering SA program, which employs 18 much-larger community batteries to lower residents’ electricity bills.

Queensland and Tasmania: None

Tasmania and Queensland don’t currently have their own dedicated battery rebate schemes. However, households can still claim the new federal rebate and benefit from VPP programs offered through energy retailers like Reposit, Amber and others.

Victoria: Solar Homes Program

This program is currently not taking applications, but keep an eye on it to see if more become available in future. Previously, it offered interest-free loans to purchase home batteries.

If you’re considering installing solar panels, rebates of up to $1400 plus interest-free loans for the same amount are still available. 

Western Australia: Residential Battery Scheme

This incentive allows residents to get a rebate and no-interest loan to purchase and install a home battery. 

On a 10kWh battery, applicants are eligible for a combined rebate of $5000 for Synergy customers and $7500 for Horizon Power customers. This is in addition to the federal rebate. 

No-interest loans of up to $10,000 are also available to households with a combined annual income of less than $210,000. Loan repayment periods will be up to 10 years. 

To receive a battery rebate and/or no-interest loan through the scheme, eligibility requirements apply, including participation in a virtual power plant.

How virtual power plants can reduce your bills

A virtual power plant (VPP) is a network of solar and battery systems owned by homes and small businesses, centrally controlled by a computer system run by the VPP operator company. 

By joining a VPP program, you agree to make the stored energy in your home battery available to the VPP operator, who can then use it to supply the grid in times of high demand.

In return, you’re paid an ongoing subsidy, which might come in the form of reduced energy bills, a rebate towards buying the battery, or even free solar and battery installation. 

In a wider sense, VPPs also reduce demand on the grid, which makes the state’s energy supply more stable and less prone to outages, and it reduces the price of electricity for everyone (it’s also better for the environment).

Keep in mind, though, that joining a VPP program won’t always guarantee that your battery pays for itself, and that not all battery types can connect to one. 

Additionally, it can mean that your own battery runs low at night time when you need it the most, due to the VPP having taken some of the stored energy earlier that day.

There are various VPP programs in most states that can help reduce the cost of a battery. SolarQuotes maintains a list of .

The post Solar home battery rebate: The big changes coming 1 May appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

When you’re installing thousands of dollars’ worth of solar panels, you naturally want the best for your budget.

After all, how much electricity they generate will have a huge impact on your power bill savings and carbon footprint for decades to come. 

It’s easy (and human nature) to assume that the more expensive the panels are, the more superior, well-built and reliable they’ll be. But as our testing proves time and time again across hundreds of different appliances and products, higher price tags don’t automatically guarantee better performance. 

That’s why actual lab-based, real-world testing is so vital. Our latest review of popular panels definitely proved the point (see the solar panels to avoid here), with some cheaper 440-watt units clearly showing up more expensive panels.

​​For ĚÇĐÄVlog members only, we’ll reveal the top-rated budget solar panels (under $140 per panel) below, plus we share our expert tips for getting started with solar for your home.

If you want to just see the results, you can jump straight to the best budget solar panels now.

Panel pricing and sizing your system

How much do solar panels cost?

Unlike many other products, solar panels have actually come down in price over the past decade, thanks to economies of scale in manufacturing, a competitive market and improvements in panel technology.

In our latest test, panel models range in price from $120 to $280 and in claimed output from 430W to 475W. Note that panel prices are a guide only; the price you’ll pay per panel will be part of the overall installation package and may vary.

So how much does a whole solar panel array cost? According to our partners at SolarQuotes, these are the current estimated ranges for installation of a good quality solar panel system:

• 5 kilowatt: $4500–$8000
• 6.6 kilowatt: $5500–$9000
• 10 kilowatt: $8000–$13,000

The most popular size for new systems is 6.6kW, but bigger systems (9 to 10kW or more) are becoming more popular. The above prices include the federal government STC rebate and could be further reduced by state or territory rebates or schemes, if they’re currently available.

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

Determining your system size

We take a deeper dive into this in our buying guide, but it will depend on your power needs, available roof area and your budget.

It’s important to understand your current electricity consumption, so you’ll need to look at how much you use and when you use it throughout the day (analysing previous bills is a great first step). A good installer will also help you through this process.

As a guide, a typical Australian home uses 15–20kWh per day, but consumption can vary, depending on:

• how many people live there
• your location (are you frequently running air con or heaters?)
• if you use gas instead of electricity for cooking or hot water daytime and nighttime routines (are you home mostly or out?)
• additional needs like EV-charging, a pool, or air conditioning. 

Any excess electricity generated can be exported back to the grid to earn feed-in tariff credits, or charge a home storage battery to use at night.

If you’re considering the latter, you’ll want to upsize your solar panel system to ensure there’s enough solar incoming to run your home while also charging the battery.

How we test panels to find the best

ĚÇĐÄVlog has been reviewing solar panels for over a decade. We partner with , a world-class solar photovoltaics test laboratory in Canberra who have specialised equipment and expertise. 

PV Lab evaluates each panel’s power output under standard lab conditions, and conducts rigorous stress tests to see how they’ll cope on a rooftop in heat and rain.

We test three sample panels of each featured model, with all samples subjected to a range of identical assessments (learn more about how we test here).

These include: 

• Power output test (comprises 85% of ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Rating)
• Visual inspection (5%)
• Electroluminescence testing (5%)
• Wet leakage test (5%)

Best budget panels from our test

In our product review, we’ve assessed 20 different panels from popular brands including Trina, SunPower, Jinko, Aiko, Canadian Solar, REC, Risen, DAS and more. 

These are the best performing budget models priced under $140 per panel. Not only are they great value, they also outperformed many more expensive panels costing over $200.

The post Best budget solar panels from our test appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

When you’re throwing down thousands of dollars for a new solar system, you want to be sure your chosen panels deliver the electricity they promise. 

If they don’t, you’ll be missing out on valuable sunshine day in, day out, for the panels’ 20–30 year lifespan. 

That means less power generated for your home to use or to sell back to the grid, as well as higher power bills and longer payback times for your system. 

And if you do buy inferior panels, it’s unlikely you’ll ever know. Because once installed, it’s easy to blame under-performing solar generation on poor weather, shading or other external variables – plus, you probably don’t have much to compare it to if you’ve never have solar before.  

And given you can only get the federal government’s solar panel rebate once per home, it’s a decision you want to get right from the get-go. 

That’s why ĚÇĐÄVlog has been reviewing panels for over a decade. To do so, we partner with , an accredited world-class photovoltaics test laboratory in Canberra with specialised equipment and expertise. 

PV Lab evaluates each panel’s power output under standard lab conditions, and conducts rigorous stress tests to see how they’ll cope on a rooftop in heat and rain.

New to solar panels? Check out our buying guide to learn about price ranges, how to size your system and government rebates.

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

How we test solar panels

To be comprehensive, our experts test three different sample panels of each model, with all subjected to a range of rigorous assessments. These include:

Power output test (85%)

This measures each model’s panel power output under standard test conditions: 25°C, sea level air mass and irradiance (power density) of 1000Watts (W) per square metre. 

PV Lab tests three different panels of each model, and then calculate the average of the results for their performance for power output. This helps detect any variations between samples.

This test makes up 85% of our final ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Rating for each model.

It’s worth noting that solar panels in the real world will usually deliver a lower power yield than what’s measured in stable, standardised lab conditions. On your roof, they are exposed to higher temperatures, cloud cover and changing sun angles across the day and across seasons. 

Visual inspection (5%)

This test looks for any obvious faults, such as damage to the panel or electrical connections, which can happen in the factory or in transit. A few small imperfections are often found, but these don’t usually affect performance.

Any defect that’s detectable to the naked eye could indicate a risk to the reliability of the panel and it may be more likely to fail sooner than its warranty indicates. This test comprises 5% of the ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Rating.

Electroluminescence testing (5%)

This takes the inspection to a more advanced level, and uses infrared photography to identify any microcracks or other flaws in the panel that are invisible to the naked eye. 

A fail here means the lab found something serious in that check. It usually won’t mean lower efficiency or power output initially, but this weak point could make the panel more likely to fail after a few years on the roof after being exposed to continual micro expansion and contraction in the heat and rain. This test comprises 5% of the ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Rating.

Wet leakage (5%)

This testing involves submerging the panel in water and measuring electrical resistance across the panel. This tests how well the panel will resist moisture penetration from rain, dew, fog and other wet weather. This test comprises 5% of the ĚÇĐÄVlog Expert Rating.

Solar panel test results

In our latest round of testing, we’ve assessed 20 different panels from popular brands including Trina, SunPower, Jinko, Aiko, Canadian Solar, REC, Risen, DAS and more. 

Models range in price from $120 to $280 and in claimed output from 430W to 475W.

Don’t judge a brand by one model

If we’ve learnt one thing from decades of testing different products, it’s that quality can vary across a brand’s range and the performance you get can be very different for each individual model. That’s why testing is so vital. 

Likewise, higher prices are never an instant guarantee of quality – our test saw cheaper panels outperform more expensive ones. In fact, the priciest panel in our test actually rated the lowest! 

Our full test results are available exclusively to our members. To see the full solar panel test results, consider becoming a today.

The solar panels to avoid

While our experts found plenty of impressive panels at varying price points, they also saw others that seriously failed to shine. To avoid ending up with lacklustre panels, avoid these models that rated lowest in our power output test.

1. REC 460AA Pure-RX

• Panel price: $280
• Claimed power output: 460W
• Tested power output: 426W
• Output difference: -7.3%

This panel scored the solar wooden spoon in our tests. Why? Because its claimed output is 460W but it only delivered 426W in our test, which means it’s short-changing you a hefty 7.3%.

That difference might not sound like much initially, but it’s a fair chunk of electricity to miss out on every day for the next few decades. With peak-time electricity prices on the rise, no doubt your home and power bill could use that extra 7.3%. 

Its poor performance stings even more given this panel is the most expensive one in our test, giving you another big reason to avoid it. Our experts found panels with a bigger capacity that are cheaper and rated much higher.

In better news, it scored 100% for its visual, electroluminescence and wet leakage tests.

2. Winaico WST-450NGX-D3

• Panel price: $198
• Claimed power output: 450W
• Tested power output: 427W
• Output difference: -5.12%

Sadly, you won’t be winning too much with this Winaico model. This 450W panel undercut its claimed power output, providing a disappointing 427W instead. That’s a discount of just over 5% that you never wanted. 

Alarmingly, this model scored only 33% in the lab’s electroluminescence assessment (which uses infrared to identify any microcracks) with just one of its three sample panels passing the inspection with no faults.

3. Seraphim SN N-Topcon SRP-440-BTD-BG

• Panel price: $200
• Claimed power output: 440W
• Tested power output: 418W
• Output difference: -5%

With the third lowest score for output difference, this panel’s definitely not the brightest spark either. It promised 440W of output, but our test revealed it managed just 418W, squeezing you out of 5% along the way.

Like the Winaico, this panel also displayed some worrying faults – but these ones were actually visible to the naked eye. It scored 67% in our visual inspection with just two sample panels out of three passing the test. It was the only product in our test not to get 100% in this assessment. 

But when our experts took an even closer look using infrared photography in our electroluminescence test, the news got worse. The model rated just 33% after two panels out of three failed the assessment.

The post Solar panels to avoid appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

With peak-time power costs on the rise and generous government rebates still available, more and more homeowners are choosing solar to cut their power bills, reduce carbon emissions and, increasingly, store their surplus power in a home battery to use at night. 

Solar has many benefits, but installation is expensive and can be complex to understand. Additionally, the electricity landscape has changed a lot over the years as retail plans, feed-in tariffs and new rebates continue to evolve and impact the market.

To help you make sense of it, here’s our easy guide to everything you need to know.

On this page:

• How do solar panels work?
• Solar panel prices
• Choosing the right size system
• Solar panel payback time
• The solar ‘rebate’ and how to get it
• Feed-in tariffs
• Solar panel buying guide checklist
• Choosing the right installer and products
• Types of warranties

How do solar panels work?

Materials such as silicon can be made to produce electricity when light falls on them. This is called the photovoltaic effect (PV). Solar panels use this to convert energy from sunlight into direct current (DC) electrical power.

An inverter unit then changes this into alternating current (AC) for your home’s electrical circuits so you can use it. Any excess energy can be fed back to the electricity grid or stored in your own battery storage system.

Electricity generation is measured in watts and kilowatts.

Watt (W) and kilowatt (kW): A unit used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. One kilowatt = 1000 watts. With solar panels, the rating in watts specifies the maximum power the panel can deliver at any point in time. 

Watt-hours (Wh) and kilowatt-hours (kWh): A measure of energy production or consumption over time. The kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the unit you’ll see on your electricity bill, because you’re billed for your electricity usage over time. A solar panel producing 300W for one hour would deliver 300Wh (or 0.3kWh) of energy.

Solar panel prices

Solar panels have come down in price over the past decade thanks to economies of scale in manufacturing, a competitive market and improvements in panel technology.

According to our partners at SolarQuotes, these are the current price ranges for good quality solar panel systems:

• 5 kilowatt: $4500–$8000
• 6.6 kilowatt: $5500–$9000
• 10 kilowatt: $8000–$13,000

These prices include the federal government STC rebate and could be further reduced by any state or territory rebates currently available. 

Do expect to pay at the higher end of the range if you’re going for top quality components or if your home requires a tricky installation (such as multiple levels, difficult access or requiring tree trimming). 

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

Choosing the right size system

How many panels do you need?

People often think about their solar PV system in terms of how many panels it has, but far more important is the maximum electricity capacity the system can deliver. 

For example, your set-up might use 15 x 440W panels, or 16 x 415W panels – either way, it adds up to about 6600W (6.6kW) and that’s the number that really matters.

Keep in mind that fewer panels can mean a quicker, cheaper installation, and it leaves room if you want to add additional panels later.

Determining your system size

This will be based on your power needs, so you’ll need to look at how much electricity you use at home and when you use it. 

As a guide, a typical Australian home uses 15–20kWh per day, but consumption can vary depending on key factors like:

• how many people live there
• your location (are you running air con or heaters 24/7?)
• whether you use gas instead of electricity for cooking or hot water
• daytime routine (are you home or at work?)
• additional power needs like EV-charging, a pool, or air conditioning. 

For example, a single-person home will typically use about 8–12kWh per day, while a household of five people with a pool and multiple air conditioners could use 30–40kWh per day.

These days solar panels are relatively cheap, so it makes sense to install the biggest system you can within your budget. 

Excess electricity can go back into the grid for feed-in tariffs (see below), or charge a home storage battery so that you have cheap power after sunset. The most common size for new systems is 6.6kW, but bigger systems (9 to 10kW or more) are becoming more popular. 

If you’re including a battery in your system, then you’ll want to go big with the solar panel capacity to make sure there’s enough daytime power to run your home while also charging the battery.

Solar panel payback times

It can take anywhere from two to six years for a solar system to pay for itself – depending on what price you paid for it, your local electricity rates and what feed-in tariff (FiT) you can get for exporting excess power (learn more about FiTs below).

Thankfully Solar Quotes have crunched the numbers and calculated the average payback time for each capital city, as shown below. 

• Adelaide: 4 years, 1 month
• Brisbane: 4 years, 3 months
• Canberra: 3 years, 11 months
• Darwin: 3 years, 9 months
• Hobart: 4 years
• Melbourne: 6 years, 5 months
• Perth: 5 years, 3 months
• Sydney: 4 years, 1 month

Prices are for a typical 6.6kW system (as of January 2026), based on the default settings for the SolarQuotes calculator. The payback times factor in typical power prices, feed-in tariffs, hours of sunlight and other factors relevant to each location.

The solar ‘rebate’ and how to get it

Designed to incentivise solar panel uptake, the federal government’s Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (commonly called a rebate) gives eligible residents a considerable discount on installing a certified solar system. 

It does this by issuing a form of currency called a Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC) for every megawatt hour of electricity generated by your new solar system. Generally, the bigger the system and the sunnier the region it’s in, the more STCs it will generate. 

Most people assign their STCs to their chosen installer, who will sell them on your behalf and give you an upfront discount on the system price, minus a small admin fee.

Alternatively, you can sell the STCs yourself, which involves considerable paperwork, applications and time. You might get a better price this way, but it does take a lot more effort.

ĚÇĐÄVlog tip: To calculate how many STCs your system will generate, use the .

Is the rebate going to end?

You may see scare campaigns from some solar installers urging you to “buy solar now before the rebate ends”. The government scheme isn’t about to end, but it does decrease each year and will eventually become zero in 2031.

Other rebates and loans

Some states and territories also offer their own incentives to install solar panels and batteries. These do change from time to time, so check the to see what’s available in your area and their criteria.

Feed-in tariffs

A feed-in tariff (FiT) is a monetary credit your electricity retailer pays you for each kWh of excess power you export back to the grid.

Nowadays you don’t make much money from FiTs, so it’s best to maximise your own use of your solar PV and minimise your export to the grid.

How FiTs work

Almost all FiTs around Australia are now net FiTs. This means a household is only paid for surplus electricity fed into the grid after domestic use is subtracted.

Gross feed-in tariffs, where households are paid for all the electricity their panels produce, irrespective of their own domestic electricity consumption, are no longer available for new applicants in any state or territory.

How much money do you make from FiTs?

Daytime FiT rates around the country have dropped a lot in the last decade as more solar power saturates the grid and state governments cease regulating the minimum rate payable. 

On average, FiTs now average around 5c/kWh, but it does depend on your location, the energy retailer you’re with and when you signed onto your plan. Some new plans now cap FiTs to certain amounts during the day, or pay you a lower rate after you exceed a certain threshold.

Home batteries: Should you buy one?

A home battery lets you store surplus electricity generated by your solar panels during the day so you can use it at night or on a cloudy day.

By doing this, you can avoid paying peak prices for grid power in the evening and save some substantial money (instead of paying 35–40c per kWh, you’re using free power).

If you still have excess electricity in your battery after that, you can also export that back to the grid for an evening FiT, which pays a lot higher than a daytime one, or feed it into a virtual power plant (VPP), which might even pay more. 

Batteries aren’t cheap, so they’re a big decision – check our home solar battery guide for all the info you need.

Solar in apartments or rented homes

Accessing solar power when you live in an apartment or you rent is possible, but there are more challenges to overcome. We outline your options below.

Solar for apartments

Apartment buildings face more challenges than a freestanding house when it comes to installing solar panels.

The elevated roof space may require cranes for access, and it can be complicated to share and meter the solar power between all the apartments. The owner’s corporation needs to agree to any such installations, and despite the potential benefits of solar, it may be hard to get enough owners to agree to the work.

One solution can be to have the solar panel system supply power only to the common areas and facilities, such as foyer, carparks, lifts, swimming pool pumps and so on. This will help reduce the building’s running costs, and therefore keep strata levies down.

If the apartment building is relatively small, it can be possible to install solar panels that directly feed into individual apartments. But this can still be a big project – fair allocation of roof space and the complexity of the wiring are just two of the hurdles you need to clear.

Solar panels for rented homes

Renters have limited options for going solar. While some rented properties will already have solar panels, most do not.

As a renter, you could put a case to the property owner for getting solar installed. You might offer to pay more rent in return for the reduced power bills you’ll get. The owner gets the benefit of increased rent, plus longer-term added value for the property.

Solar panel buying guide checklist

• Assess your power use by analysing your bills over the past 12 months (to account for seasonal highs and lows) – this will help you choose the solar capacity you need. 
• Check what direction your roof faces – panels work best when facing north.
• Make sure there are no trees, power lines or other structures shading your roof.
• Find out what local council approval is needed. Increasingly, local councils have staff on hand to help people make the best decisions on solar.
• Try to figure out your system’s payback time (see graphic further up).
• The inverter (which converts DC power from the panels into AC power for your home) is a key part of the system. See our guide to buying a solar inverter for all the details.
• If you’re considering buying a battery, see our guide to solar storage batteries to understand the costs, pros and cons.
• Get multiple quotes from installers to ensure you’re getting a good deal, and make sure your installer is CEC-accredited (see below). 
• Ensure your solar panels meet the required standards (see below).
• Check your solar panels’ product and performance warranties – see below for what these are.

Choosing the right installer and products

If you want to be eligible for small-scale technology certificates (STCs), your solar and/or battery system must be installed by an accredited installer. 

The accreditation body for solar installers is Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA). On its website, you can to ensure the installer’s accreditation is current.

When choosing an installer, look for an accredited company: 

• that is a signatory to the accreditation body’s code of conduct
• that has been in business for a while 
• with an established track record
• with relevant experience
• that has specialist expertise
• that has a good reputation.

Solar panels, inverters and batteries must also be on the .

Quality standards and certification

You should make sure any solar PV system you consider has met Australian and international standards.

To be eligible for small-scale technology certificates, your solar panels must be certified – ask your installer to supply proof. You can check the CEC’s list of currently , (panels) and to confirm.

Also, the Clean Energy Regulator has partnered with the solar industry and peak bodies to introduce the . This scheme allows businesses in the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme supply chain to check if solar panels are genuine before they are installed.

Participating installers and suppliers will be able to use the scheme to provide you with a verified report confirming that the panels they’ve installed on your roof are genuine and that you’re getting what you’ve paid for.

Types of warranties

There are two main warranties provided for solar panels: one for the product, and another for its performance.

Product warranty

This is the warranty for the panel itself. It’s the typical type of warranty that offers repair or replacement if there are any manufacturing faults. 

Typical solar panel product warranties used to be 12 or 15 years, but now you can  expect 25 years or more. As always, a longer warranty is a good indication of the manufacturer’s confidence in their product.

It’s important to know the difference between the product and performance warranties – you’ll see a 25-year performance warranty promoted more loudly than a 10-year product warranty, but the product warranty is the one that you’re more likely to call on if there’s any problem.

Performance warranty

The performance warranty is a guarantee that as long as the panel is functioning and undamaged, it will still produce a guaranteed minimum percentage of its claimed power rating after a certain period, typically about 80% after 25 years.

The warranty usually also promises that the panel will degrade in an orderly, linear fashion – that is, it will only lose a small and predictable amount of power output each year.

Most solar panels have 25-year performance warranties, and most solar PV systems should last at least that long (with some maintenance along the way). Some performance warranties now run longer, for 30 or 40 years.

Note that it can be hard to tell whether your panels are truly performing as they should, especially after several years. If you believe your panels aren’t performing as expected, the performance warranty may put the onus and cost on you to have the panels tested in order to make a warranty claim.

It’s also a question as to whether a manufacturer will still be around in 20+ years to honour a warranty claim. Nevertheless, these warranties do give some assurance that manufacturers are confident in the long-term performance of these products.

Other warranties

As well as the warranties for the solar panels, you should also get a warranty from the installer for their workmanship in installing the system – the mounting racks, wiring and connections.

This will typically be one or two years – which should be enough to detect any major problems – but as always, a longer warranty is better.

The inverter will also have its own warranty, typically five years but they can be up to 10 years or more.

Solar panel specifications explained

When you look at the specs for a solar panel, you’ll see a lot of numbers and terminology that you might not understand. Here are the basics.

Types of solar panel

The main types of solar panels you’ll see on homes are monocrystalline and multicrystalline panels (aka polycrystalline), but there are other types too.

Here’s a quick explanation of the main solar panel types on the market today.

The post How to buy the best solar panels for your home appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

One case in point is that you can have your power cut off in Australia for not being able to pay a bill as low as $300. The threshold will move up to $500 in July this year, but whether that will significantly reduce the rate of disconnections is questionable.

Losing electricity in your home does physical, mental and social damage. Whatever financial strains led to this point will now only get worse, since you can’t do much of anything without power.

There were around 23,000 energy disconnections in Australia last year. According to research by the advocacy group Energy Consumers Australia (ECA), at least twenty times that number are currently at risk of being disconnected.

In states and territories under the jurisdiction of the Australian Energy Regulator (ACT, NSW, Qld, SA and Tas), energy retailers are required to assist customers facing a money crisis through hardship programs that stretch out payback timeframes. Victoria’s Payment Difficulty Framework works much the same way.

But as we reported in September last year, many retailers shirk these obligations. And for every energy customer in a hardship program, it’s been estimated that at least two more are in debt but haven’t asked for help from their retailers.

Cutting off power when people can’t pay is not allowed in some countries

A recent project funded by ECA and conducted by researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) explores the fact that cutting off people’s power when they can’t pay is not the way it works in several other comparable countries, namely Spain, France and Ireland.

The in the journal Energy Research and Social Science and argues that turning off the lights on households is a long way from the only option retailers and policymakers have.

“Ending harmful disconnections is a policy choice, not an inevitability of how energy markets operate,” says lead RMIT researcher associate professor Nicola Willand.

“If governments and regulators are prepared to act, they can design systems that keep households connected while still allowing energy businesses to remain viable.”

For starters, they could look to more enlightened approaches overseas.

It’s generally illegal to cut off customers who can’t pay their bills in Spain, where the electricity costs of the most financially vulnerable people are shared between retailers and local governments. Vulnerable households can also apply for discounts on their energy bills of up to 65%.

In France and Ireland, households can’t be disconnected during winter. In France and Spain, the energy supply of customers who can’t afford their bills is reduced rather than cut off, allowing them to keep basic household services running.

Some retailers in France and Spain have voluntarily chosen to never cut off a customer’s power.

Co-author of the report, Orla Dingley from University College Dublin, says Ireland’s Energy Engage Code shows how disconnection policy can focus on support rather than punishment.

“The commitment to keep engaged customers connected provides a model other countries could adopt,” Dingley says.

RMIT’s Nicola Willand agrees, saying “these examples offer valuable lessons for any country grappling with energy affordability and consumer vulnerability”.

‘Fallen on deaf ears’

The takeaway message from the report is that disconnections can be banned in Australia without threatening the viability of the energy market.

“Calls for an end to disconnections have previously fallen on deaf ears, with the assumption being that there was no workable alternative. But this research proposes initiatives that may help secure equitable access to essential energy,” Willand says. 

ECA executive manager of advocacy and policy Carol Valente says the research “underlines how we must explore alternatives to disconnections, especially for consumers in vulnerable circumstances”, adding that ECA is conducting further research into how retailers, governments and policymakers can better support households that face payment difficulties.

The report makes a few key recommendations to Australian energy retailers and policymakers:

• The introduction of legally binding disconnection bans based on medical electricity needs and financial or social vulnerability.
• A moratorium on winter and summer disconnections.
• Reducing the power supply rather than completely disconnecting a property.

Unlawful disconnections are not rare

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has taken action against a number of retailers for illegally cutting off power to homes. But the fines have been tiny in comparison to the size and revenue of these corporations.

In 2019, for instance, Origin Energy paid an $80,000 fine for improperly disconnecting 54 homes. In 2020, AGL paid a $100,000 fine for disconnecting customers who were having trouble paying.

Energy Australia and AGL have also paid AER fines ($1.5 million and $100,000, respectively) for cutting off customers who couldn’t afford their bills.

At the time, the AER was limited to a maximum fine of $100,000 for breaches of the National Energy Retail Law. In February 2021, the limit was raised to $10 million.  (The earlier $1.5 million AGL fine was a court-ordered penalty based on multiple breaches.)

The AER has recently conducted several reviews of payment difficulty protections and disconnection policy and made a number of rule change requests to the Australian Energy Market Commission (the energy market’s rule maker) to improve protections for financially vulnerable customers.

In March 2025, energy ministers around Australia signed on to something called the Better Energy Customer Experiences program, which aims to continually review and update consumer protections so they remain fit for purpose as the energy market changes. The AER contributes advice to this reform program.

Exploring alternatives

AER chair Clare Savage tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that the regulator “has long been focused on the issue of energy disconnections in both our policy work and in our compliance and enforcement activities”, adding that the AER was the first regulator in the world to issue a “statement of expectations” to energy market participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. (The expectation was that retailers wouldn’t disconnect customers during mandated lockdowns.)

“The research is clear. Early identification of customers experiencing payment difficulty and support for them are vital to getting customers back on track and paying their bills,” Savage says. “It’s important we focus on what else can be done before it even gets to a situation where disconnection is considered.”

Savage says the effort to explore alternatives to disconnection is ongoing through initiatives such as the federal government’s Better Energy Customer Experiences program, which picked up several measures that were recommended in the AER’s Payment Difficulty Framework review.

In November 2023, the AER presented a package of proposals called the “game changer reforms” to energy ministers which called for a number of new protections for customers who can’t afford their energy bills.

“We welcome research that contributes to the discussion about how to better support customers experiencing payment difficulty,” Savage says.

Current protections against disconnection in Australia

There are a number of scenarios in which it’s illegal for an energy retailer in Australia to disconnect a customer who’s overdue on a bill.

• The debt is less than $300 ($500 from 1 July 2026) and the customer has agreed to pay this amount within a set timeframe. 
• Life-support equipment is in use at the property.
• The customer is affected by family violence. 
• The customer had lodged a complaint with an energy ombudsman about a potential disconnection.
• The customer is awaiting a decision on an application for a rebate, concession or relief under any government-funded scheme. 
• Consumers are protected from disconnection during certain timeframes, including afternoons, evenings, Fridays, weekends, public holidays, and between 20 and 31 December.

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Once upon a time, electricity retailers would pay a pretty penny for the surplus power sent from your solar panels to the grid. 

In the late 2000s, some state governments offered tariffs as high as 40 to 60 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in a bid to boost solar uptake. 

Fast forward to the present and those incentives have definitely paid off. Australia now leads the world for solar adoption, with 4.2 million solar photovoltaic (PV) systems now installed across the country, according to the CSIRO (as of June 2025).

Of course, that’s great news for consumer energy independence and cutting power bills and climate pollution. But along the way, feed-in tariffs have tumbled to an average of around five cents per kWh, or even zero depending on your retail plan. 

With many solar owners still counting on a decent FiT to reduce bills, the crash has left many asking why it’s fallen so far, and what they should do now with their surplus solar power. 

We take a look at why FiTs have flatlined, the current rates still available, the emergence of new export charges, and how to best use your excess energy in future.

On this page:

• The rise and fall of FiTs over the years
• Why have FiTs dropped so much?
• Current FiT rates
• New factors: Variable rates and caps, free power and export charges
• Are FiTs still worth it?
• What to do with your surplus power

The rise and fall of FiTs over the years

Richard Foxworthy is an industry expert and the CEO of Bill Hero, a savings service that compares utility bills for customers across Australia. Since 2014, his company has analysed thousands of electricity retail plans, including the FiTs they offer.

He says there have been three main phases of FiT pricing.

1. The FiTs ‘premium’ phase: 2008–2016 

State governments offered huge FiTs (44c–60c/kWh) to kickstart the industry. Most of these ‘premium’ schemes have now ended or will end soon (for example, Queensland and South Australia in 2028).

2. The ‘fair value’ era: 2017–2020

As government subsidies ended, many state energy regulators set ‘minimum’ FiTs, with these rates decreasing yearly. They typically hovered around 10–12c/kWh.

South Australia and Victoria stopped setting minimum FiTs in 2017 and 2025 respectively,  while NSW never did (it does have voluntary benchmarks). Only Tasmania, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and regional Queensland still regulate FiTs. 

3. The ‘solar surplus’ era: 2021–present:

The combination of high solar uptake and cheaper, more-efficient panels has rapidly increased daytime energy production, which has crashed wholesale electricity prices.

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Why have FiTs dropped so much?

“It’s ultimately supply and demand – the more solar kWh that get generated as more systems are installed, the lower the wholesale electricity spot price will go during those solar production hours,” says Foxworthy. 

“With the spot price so radically reduced compared to what it used to be, many electricity retailers can’t offer higher feed-in tariffs because literally at that time, the energy is not really worth much in the marketplace.”

If retailers do offer higher feed-in tariff rates, it’s part of their marketing strategy to attract and retain customers. But higher-FiT plans can have shortcomings (see the next section).

Current FiT rates: How much are retailers paying?

It’s a tricky question, given FiTs vary widely due to a range of factors. These include your electricity retailer, your location, the electricity plan you’re on and when you signed on. 

The good news is that while spot prices might hit zero during the day, many retailers still offer small FiTs to remain competitive in the market and attract customers. 

The graph below shows average FiTs by state and territory over the past three years. 

As you can see, rates hover around five cents per kWh, with some variance across locations, although Bill Hero’s Richard Foxworthy expects that to continue to drop in the near future.

Average FiT by state and year, based on Bill Hero data

Note: WA and NT are not included as they are independent networks and not part of the National Electricity Market (NEM), which Bill Hero services.

Don’t pick a plan based solely on FiT

Some plans still spruik above-average rates, but Foxworthy warns this shouldn’t be your only criteria when choosing a plan. 

“There are plans out there offering higher FiTs, which sound great, but they’re very likely to have a correspondingly unattractive daily usage rate. You need to consider the entire plan holistically.”

At the same time, he says solar owners shouldn’t instantly dismiss plans that offer zero FiT.

“We know from direct experience that there’s plenty of situations where a zero FiT plan can still represent the best value for a consumer, because you’ve got to also consider the consumption charges that come with it. Once again, there’s a trade-off that’s baked into every one of these plans.”

New factors: Variable rates and caps, free power and export charges

In response to the solar surge, many retailers have dramatically changed their plans and FiT payouts. Some now offer free electricity during the day, while others pay variable FiTs depending on times, and/or they cap FiTs to certain kWh limits per day. 

No doubt these new dynamics will make choosing the right electricity plan even more complicated (as if they weren’t complex enough). 

Variable FiTs and limits

Instead of flat rate FiTs, some retailers now pay variable rates based on the time of the day. These time-of-use (TOU) rates usually pay lowest during 10am to 3pm, slightly better in the early morning and late afternoon, and much higher after 4pm when the grid is hungriest.

Other plans taper FiTs to a certain kWh limit each day. For example, Alinta’s Solar Balance plan currently pays customers 10 cents per kWh for the first 10kWh exported daily and five cents for anything over that. 

‘Free electricity’ windows now available

With the over-supply of solar power, several retailers are now offering customers free electricity during certain time periods during the day (note: supply charges still apply and their peak rates can be more expensive). 

It’s a practice we’ll definitely see more of when the federal government’s new comes into play on 1 July. 

In a bid to lower power bills for everyone and ease peak demand in the evening, the scheme requires retailers to offer all residential customers at least three hours of free electricity during the day.

Initially the scheme will be available in states covered by the Australian Energy Regulator’s Default Market Offer (DMO) price cap, which is NSW, South Australia and South-East Queensland. Customers must opt in via their plan and have a smart meter installed.

Electricity export charges, aka the ‘sun tax’

In a sign of how quickly the market’s shifting, some customers may ultimately be penalised for exporting too much solar power. 

Last year, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) permitted electricity distributors (the companies that own the infrastructure and provide power to retailers) to implement two-way pricing tariffs and charge a small fee per kWh if exports exceed a certain threshold during set times (usually 10am to 3pm). 

For example, NSW electricity distributor Ausgrid now lets customers export 200kWh a month between 10am to 3pm for free, but over that, it will charge retailers 1.23 cents per kWh exported. Between peak grid times of 4pm and 9pm, Ausgrid pays a FiT of 3.85 cents.

Whether these charges will be passed on to customers directly will depend on each retailer and their plans – some retailers might absorb them, but just reduce the FiTs they pay out.

This so-called ‘sun tax’ has angered many solar owners, but retailers argue it’s required to maintain grid stability and encourage customers to use their own generated electricity, or store it in a battery to use for later.

Are FiTs still worth it?

Sadly, the sun is setting on daytime FiTs, with the long-term forecast looking grim and rates expected to slide further. 

“The fundamental reality is that solar FiTs are rapidly trending towards $0, and therefore no longer represents a major financial reason for a solar investment alone,” says Foxworthy.

“Before long, solar export will attract network access fees for most solar households, so as well as earning very low FiTs, households can expect to be charged for the privilege of exporting their solar kWh.”

With that in mind, unless you’re on an older legacy plan still offering great FiTs, it’s probably wise to review your power bill and consider other ways to optimise those extra kWhs.

What to do with your surplus solar

So with daytime FiTs fading, where does that leave solar owners and their excess electricity? And what are the best options to use it going forward?

Rather than sending solar to the grid for pennies, or being charged to do so, Foxworthy says home owners should aim to “maximise self-consumption of solar generation and minimise the need for high-priced kWh imports at other times of day”.

There’s two key ways to do this:

1. Shift your power use to peak solar hours

This requires changing up your routine to run appliances like dishwashers or washing machines, or charging your EV or e-bike, either side of midday rather than at night (using your appliances’ timers can be quite helpful for this).

For example, a dishwasher uses around one kWh per cycle on average. Run it through the day and it’ll cost nothing with solar, but use it at night and it’ll chew up peak grid rates – let’s say it’s 35 cents per kWh, for this example. It might not seem like much, but using solar for one wash a day will save you $127.75 yearly.

Of course, time-shifting sounds great but it is difficult if work or other commitments mean you’re not home much. Plus at night, you’ll always need to use some power for cooking, lights, heaters and other appliances. That’s where a home battery comes in handy.

2. Store power in a battery

Historically, home batteries have been very expensive, but that’s changed considerably with the federal government’s solar battery rebate now offering a discount of around 30% off the installation price.

Still, they don’t come cheap – even with the rebate, a 10kWh battery installed costs between $7,000-$11,000 – so you’ll need to do some maths to ensure it’s right for your budget and home power usage. See our battery buying guide for more on prices and payback periods.

If you do install one,  you can bank all that juicy sunshine during the day (and even charge it during the aforementioned ‘free power’ windows) and use as you please. 

“A battery allows you to capture and store the excess kWh that otherwise would be exported at very low FiT rates,” says Foxworthy. 

“You can use that electricity later to avoid buying expensive peak-time grid power that will cost 35 cents or more. The financial opportunity for the battery is in the spread between the high price you avoid paying and the low FiT price that you forgo earning.”

If you still have excess power left over, you can also export it to the grid when FiTs are much higher, or funnel it to a virtual power plant for extra credit.

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According to a new carbon credit exchange platform called Aetium, the answer is yes.

Aetium is set up to issue carbon credits to people who have EVs or solar technology and offer them for sale to businesses or individuals who want to offset their carbon emissions. The scheme is also open to people who have forests on their property, defined as more than 50 trees.

The company claims that buyers of the carbon credits are making contributions that reduce net carbon dioxide (°ä°żâ‚‚) emissions, thereby reducing the buyers’ carbon footprints.

Aetium is a new entry in the world of voluntary carbon credit schemes as opposed to mandatory, government-regulated ones. Its aim, like that of other grassroots schemes, is to turn households into issuers of carbon credits.

But the advocacy group Climate Integrity has taken issue with the company’s claims of being able to contribute to the effort of reducing °ä°żâ‚‚ in the atmosphere.

The not-for-profit says Aetium’s claims lack supporting evidence and are not validated by any third-party certifier of voluntary carbon offsets or independent standards regime. They are also not certified by any government-operated crediting scheme, the not-for-profit says. In short, the business isn’t regulated by anyone.

Working with lawyers from the Environmental Defenders Office (an Australian NGO), Climate Integrity recently filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about Aetium, flagging potentially misleading and deceptive conduct.

The not-for-profit has also filed a complaint with Ad Standards, charging that Aetium’s claims may be in breach of the Environmental Claims Code.

°ä°żâ‚‚ removal or business as usual?

In order for a carbon credits scheme to prove its credits represent genuine °ä°żâ‚‚ reductions, Climate Integrity says it needs to pass the “additionality” test. This measures whether emissions reductions can be linked directly to the scheme or would have happened without the scheme in place.

The requirement to achieve additionality has been endorsed by virtually all carbon crediting regimes around the world as well as by climate scientists, Climate Integrity says. 

“An additionality test is a critical integrity safeguard in all major carbon credit standards. It assesses whether a project genuinely creates additional emissions reductions, beyond business as usual and which would not have occurred in the absence of the incentive,” says executive director Claire Snyder.

“Aetium’s credits fail to meet an additionality test because consumers signing up to the scheme would have bought and used their EVs or solar panels whether Aetium existed or not.”

The credits issued therefore don’t satisfy the principle of additionality and do not represent genuine reductions in carbon emissions, Climate Integrity says.

It also makes the case that Aetium’s methodologies are based on the contentious concept of “avoided emissions”, whereby emission reductions are calculated by comparing the activity in question (in this case driving an EV, having solar panels, or owning a forest) against hypothetical emissions-intensive alternatives.  

For Climate Integrity, the hypotheticals lack a firm grounding in the real world. “Avoided emissions offsets cannot cancel out emissions, and claims of their environmental benefits are likely to mislead consumers,” the group says. 

Aetium has signed up to the Australian Carbon Industry , but when Climate Integrity contacted the organisation, it was told that it doesn’t assess whether carbon credits are legitimate or not.

“Aetium’s claim that it aligns with the industry code of conduct is another example of the integrity crisis in Australia’s carbon market,” Snyder says. 

Aetium: ‘Voluntary actions must be recognised’

Aetium managing director Christopher Ride tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that the company is a new type of carbon credit platform that shouldn’t be compared to more traditional models. He suggests that Climate Integrity is damning a carbon credit scheme it doesn’t understand.

The company acknowledges that it’s not endorsed by the widely accepted certification or standards schemes, but says such bodies weren’t designed to oversee small-scale voluntary operations such as Aetium.

“Innovation often opens necessary debate, particularly in carbon markets, where concepts such as additionality and their interpretations continue to evolve,” Ride says. “Our view is clear – for Australia to reach Net Zero, voluntary community actions, like solar or EVs, must be recognised and rewarded, not ignored.” (Net Zero means the human race taking out as much °ä°żâ‚‚ – or greenhouse gasses – from the atmosphere as we put in.)

The company says that around 4000 people in Australia are currently using the platform but stresses that it has yet to collect fees, sell credits or retire carbon units. (Usually units are retired when one unit of °ä°żâ‚‚, normally a tonne, is confirmed to have been removed from or prevented from entering the atmosphere though the project that issued the credit.)

Ride says there is no regulatory framework at the moment that captures the “necessary evolution” that Aetium represents. The current additionality rules do not allow smaller, voluntary projects to be formally recognised, the company says.

Aetium argues that the lack of government certification doesn’t mean it and other voluntary carbon credit schemes aren’t contributing to a reduction of °ä°żâ‚‚ emissions, as long as the accounting of reductions is transparent and defensible.

“We are a technology-first company measuring positive impact, actively working with regulators to identify the appropriate path forward,” Ride says.

He maintains that the company’s methodologies are robust.

“From an ESG reporting perspective, Aetium’s aggregated reporting of current and future actions is designed to the highest level of accuracy, transparency, and consistency. Moving beyond simple estimates, it takes into account up to twice as many variables and parameters than current methods.” (ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance and is used to assess a company’s sustainability profile.)

Carbon credit market in disarray

Voluntary schemes may have their place, but the whole idea of carbon credits – that overall °ä°żâ‚‚ emissions will be reduced when companies that produce a lot of °ä°żâ‚‚ pay money to projects focused on reducing it – appears to be on shaky ground at this point.

In a recent , Climate Integrity head of corporate accountability Michael Mazengarb argues that multiple academic studies have shown that claims of emission reductions through carbon credit schemes have either been untrue or “grossly exaggerated”.

He cites one study that found that around 90% of carbon credits issued under some schemes could not be linked to actual emissions reductions.

A 2023 article by public policy think tank The Australia Institute said depending on carbon credits to offset emissions “is mathematically impossible and a recipe for climate disaster”.

In 2024, ĚÇĐÄVlog reported on Climate Integrity’s case against Qantas Airlines’ carbon neutral claims. The charge was that such claims in its marketing materials were highly suspect due to its heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Whatever mitigation efforts it claimed to be doing couldn’t possibly offset this.

In a response to our queries at the time, Qantas acknowledged that the science behind its marketing messages was a work in progress.

“The integrity flaws are well documented, and become doubly problematic when offsets are used to pardon other emissions-intensive activities,”  Mazengarb wrote in Review Economy, referring to carbon credit schemes in general.

‘False solutions’

Last year, EnergyAustralia discontinued its Go Neutral carbon offset scheme after the environmental advocacy group Parents for Climate took the company to court, alleging greenwashing.

“While EnergyAustralia participated in the Climate Active certified carbon offset program in good faith, today EnergyAustralia accepts that there is legitimate public concern about the efficacy of these programs,” the company’s chief customer officer, Kate Gibson, said at the time, adding that carbon offsets “should not be used to delay or diminish the important work that needs to be done to actively decarbonise”.

An October 2025 article written by a group of carbon credit experts (including several from Australian universities) and published in the journal Nature argues that the use of carbon offsets, particularly those whose credibility is suspect, “undermines decarbonisation by enabling companies and countries to claim that emissions have been reduced when they have not. This results in more emissions, delays the phase-out of fossil fuels and diverts scarce resources to false solutions”.

In the big picture, there may be valid views on both sides about whether voluntary carbon credit schemes such as Aetium are helping to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. But for organisations such as Climate Integrity and Parents for Climate, the real focus should be on the world’s major °ä°żâ‚‚ emitters finding ways to pollute less, or not at all.

Allowing them to keep pumping out carbon dioxide and contributing to global warming while claiming that they’re offsetting this through questionable schemes – whether voluntary or mandatory – doesn’t seem to be moving the needle in the right direction.

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It can also be confusing with its head-spinning combo of prices, solar components, configurations, rebates, complex maths and tech jargon. 

Hiring a good installer will definitely help but there’s still plenty of missteps you can make on your way to energy independence. To give you a head start, our ĚÇĐÄVlog solar expert Chris Barnes reveals the common blunders people make so you don’t get burnt. 

1. Not understanding your electricity usage  

Let’s face it: reading power bills the first time can be confusing enough, let alone going back to study them and ascertain your annual power needs and patterns.

But before you start shopping for solar, it’s vital to know your home’s electricity usage first. 

On average, a typical Australian home uses 16–20 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per day but it depends greatly on number of occupants, location and climate (e.g. how much sun do you get? Are you using heaters/air cons?), and what else you’re running (i.e. EVs, air con, hot water systems).

Analysing your usage for the past year will help you learn:

• your average daily usage
• when you use the most electricity (Peak or off peak? Summer or winter? At night? On the weekend when everyone’s home?)
• future needs (Are you starting a family, getting an EV, or replacing gas appliances with electric?)
• your solar goals (do you want solar to minimise your bills or cut them completely?) 

“By looking at your bills, you’ll get a good idea of the size of the solar system you’ll need to meet your requirements,” says ĚÇĐÄVlog expert Chris Barnes.

“A good installer should help you with this before they quote, but understanding your own usage always gives you a great head start.”

It’s also important to understand the solar panel rebate and battery rebate, their eligibility criteria and if there are any additional state or territory rebates available to you.

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

2. Only getting a quote from one installer

We get it, chasing quotes can be time-consuming so it’s tempting to just get one from the company your mate used or to go for that ‘great deal’ on social media (see point three). Plus, organising numerous home inspections for quotes is a chore and turning down unsuccessful installers can be awkward. 

But despite all that, it’s still essential to collect multiple quotes for many reasons. 

“We recommend always shopping around and getting at least three solid quotes,” says ĚÇĐÄVlog solar expert Chris Barnes.

“Not only can prices vary dramatically, but installers can offer very different system configurations, brands and levels of service so it’s good to assess your options. The best ones will take time to tailor a system specifically to your home and budget.”

To share a personal anecdote, a few years back I got quotes for new solar panels. One company just emailed me back a photo of my house’s roof taken from Google Earth with little ‘solar panel’ boxes drawn on to estimate the amount needed.

The second installer visited my home, got up on the roof to inspect it, brought a drone to do a flyover and sat down with me to talk through the proposed system and answer all my novice questions.

The quoted prices were similar, but the service and attention to detail were miles apart. Needless to say, we went with the second company.

3. Falling for a dud deal

Start browsing for solar online and you’ll soon be bombarded with targeted ads promising you everything under the sun. These tempting deals take many forms, including:

• Spruiking time-sensitive offers (‘this month only!’) 
• Offering ‘free solar’ or ‘$0 upfront cost’, which usually means agreeing to give away your generated electricity to someone else and buying it back from them
• Claiming your suburb is now eligible for huge savings (not really, panel and battery rebates are available to everyone Australia-wide)
• Claiming rebates are ending soon (they’re not, although they do decrease incrementally and some state rebates will eventually disappear)
• Referencing official-sounding rebates or schemes that don’t actually exist (do your research)
• Offering a free eligibility check which is just a lead generator for them

Also, be very wary if you’re approached by door-to-door salespeople and telemarketers using pushy sales tactics to make quick commissions.

Not only are these deals often not competitive or specifically tailored to your home, being ambushed like this gives you little time to read over the deal’s often complicated terms and conditions. That’s something you can’t afford to skip.

4. Prioritising price over everything

This is related to the previous tip but also different. Going cheap might work for a new kettle or toaster, but when you’re investing in something as costly, complex and long-term as solar, it’s important to choose quality over price.

“Solar is expensive but the cost pales in comparison to the value of your home so it pays to find a good installer who will look after both,” says Chris. 

“The margins on solar aren’t big so if a company is offering you an outrageously cheap deal, they’re likely cutting corners elsewhere. This could include inferior components, shoddy or unsafe installation, or poor warranty support later.”

If you are tempted by a cheap offer, at least safeguard yourself by getting two more quotes to compare the different packages (as suggested in point one). 

Also remember you can only get the solar panel and battery rebates once per premises, so you really need to get it right the first time because the second time is going to cost a lot more. 

5. Choosing undersized or mismatched components

If you’re investing in solar, you want a solution that’s optimised for your specific power needs. 

A sloppy installer or a generic ‘one size fits all’ type package is unlikely to deliver that. If your battery system set-up is undersized, the solar panels will struggle to charge your battery through the day so you’ll still need to draw peak-priced power from the grid at night. 

The size of the inverter can also be a bit of a trap. Many online deals currently spruik huge batteries with 40–50kWh capacity but only include a 5kW inverter, which will struggle to charge and discharge such a big battery.

“A good installer will look at your usage patterns and design a system that meets your energy expectations all year round and anticipates your future usage too,” says Chris.

6. Skipping installer accreditation checks

The good news is that the solar industry has more accreditation than ever to protect consumers. But that won’t help if you don’t do the necessary checks before engaging an installer.

Companies must be accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA) and you can verify them by searching the .

Reputable companies may also be ‘approved sellers’ under the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC). Unlike accreditation, this is not compulsory but is a good indicator of service. 

The risks of using an unaccredited or subcontracted installer include:

• Voiding solar component warranties
• Voiding eligibility for government rebates for solar panels or a home battery 
• Voiding any home insurance claims 
• Dangerous safety issues including shoddy installation and risk of electrical fires 

If the installer seems new, you should also check their . If they’ve only been registered since April 2025, when the government battery rebate was first announced, then that’s a red flag and you should tread carefully.

For solar components, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) maintains a  that meet Australian standards. 

It’s highly unlikely that a good installer would be using unapproved components, but if in doubt, you should check that the components for the system quoted are clearly specified by make, size and model, and include a CEC-approved battery.

7. Counting on solar feed-in tariffs to reduce your bill

Solar energy feed-in tariffs (FiTs) are credits your electricity retailer pays you for the surplus power you export from your panels to the grid.

When FiTs were first introduced in the late 2000s, they paid as high as 60 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in some states as governments offered high premiums to incentivise solar uptake.

Sadly, the sun has set on those good times and now, with the grid saturated with solar exports, daytime FiTs have fallen to an average of around five cents, with some plans even offering zero.

Additionally, some plans now cap FiTs to a certain amount of kWh per day, or will pay you less per kWh if you exceed a certain threshold.

“If you’re considering whether a battery is viable for your home, it’s probably best not to count on daytime FiTs in your equation, as they continue to slide toward zero,” says Chris.

“Rather than exporting any surplus to the grid for very low rates, you’re much better off using that electricity yourself by shifting your appliance use to the day time where possible, or funnelling it into a home battery to use at night and avoid paying peak grid prices.”

Of course, night-time feed-in tariffs – where you export excess power from your battery to the grid during peak times – can be highly beneficial and fetch rates around 20–40 cents per kWh. That’s something to consider when choosing a new retail plan or joining a virtual power plant.

The post 7 solar mistakes to avoid when buying batteries and panels appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

The stampede has sparked a promotional blitz between solar providers, with plenty of new installers popping up to cash in on the frenzy. 

If you’re browsing for a battery, you’ve probably already seen excited ads spruiking the ‘best ever deal!’ for ‘super cheap solar!’ or even ‘free solar!’. 

Given batteries are expensive and time-consuming to research, such deals can seem mighty tempting, but be careful. Choosing a cheap offer could land you in all sorts of strife, from inefficient or failing systems to shoddy installation to poor after-sales support. 

To help you dodge the duds, we spoke to Finn Peacock, founder of SolarQuotes, Australia’s most-visited solar website. Since 2020, ĚÇĐÄVlog has partnered with SolarQuotes, which collates high-quality quotes for you from vetted installers.

Finn’s been in the solar business since 2009 so he’s seen plenty of suss deals and shady operators in his time. We asked him about the warning signs to watch out for so you don’t get burnt with a bum deal.

1. Ads spruiking dubious deals and misleading claims

With competition hotting up, some solar companies are trying everything they can to get your attention and battery rebate business. 

Start shopping online and you’ll soon be bombarded with targeted ads pushing all sorts of deals and claims. Their tactics can take many forms, including:

• promoting time-sensitive offers (“this week/month only!”) 
• claiming your suburb is now eligible for huge savings (not really, panel and battery rebates are available to everyone Australia-wide)
• claiming rebates are ending soon (they’re not, although they do decrease incrementally every six months and some state rebates will eventually disappear)
• referencing official-sounding rebates or schemes that don’t actually exist (always Google them separately to check)
• offering you a free “eligibility check”, which is just a clever way of getting your contact details
• using AI-generated images or video testimonial.

If you are enticed by an offer, do your own independent research on the company and their products and check for any other red flags listed below. 

2. Salespeople on your doorstep

Red flags don’t get much bigger than doorknockers ambushing you at home trying to sell you solar worth thousands of dollars. The same goes for telemarketers cold-calling you. 

Both are paid on commission so they’re incentivised to push quick sales and certain packages and products that might not actually suit your home or your power needs.

“I’ve literally never known someone to get a competitive deal from a doorknocker spruiking solar or batteries,” says Finn. 

“Any successful doorknocker is well versed in the art of persuasion, so they are likely to convince you to buy something without the due diligence required.”

If you do get door-knocked, ignore any high-pressure tactics and never sign up on the spot.

“The easiest way to handle them is to tell them to leave. Then get three quotes from well-reviewed locals or companies that your friends had a good experience with. Never ever sign up for a doorknocker’s offer without getting other quotes.”

Why we've partnered with SolarQuotes

We've partnered with SolarQuotes to help you find and buy the right solar, battery, heat pump and EV charger. While we make money if you use SolarQuotes to find an installer, this doesn't influence our ratings. 100% of the money we make goes directly back into our nonprofit mission.

3. Beware ‘free solar’, ‘no net cost’ or ‘no-interest finance’ offers

Such deals might sound enticing given how pricey batteries can be, but Finn warns against any offers that seem too good to be true.

“Someone has to get paid. ‘Free solar’ means giving your electricity to someone else and then buying it back from them. ‘No net cost’ is a tricky way of saying your savings will be greater than your repayments, but you can’t claim this if you don’t know the consumer’s usage!”

“‘No-interest finance’ means that they’ve taken the interest cost and whacked it onto the price of the system, unless it’s a subsidised loan from a government scheme.”

4. Mismatched components

Many installers try to entice customers by selling huge batteries with 40–50kWh capacity for very cheap prices. It sounds great, but too often they’re paired with a small 5kW inverter, which will struggle to charge such a big battery and empty it.  

Instead of going for the ‘bigger is better’ approach, Finn says it’s best to chat to installers about customising a system that suits both your energy needs and budget. 

“Your installer should look at your current and future energy load profile and size the inverter to suit accordingly. The one-size-fits-all approach is rubbish,” says Finn.

5. Unknown brands and products

Since the rebate, there’s been an influx of new battery products as installers compete for business and try to keep up with demand.

And it’s not just new or smaller installers using relatively obscure components. In September, Aldi announced its new Aldi Solar service would sell systems using Altius batteries, solar panels and hybrid inverters, which are virtually unknown in Australia.

An unheard-of brand or product isn’t an automatic deal-breaker ​​– they must be on the Clean Energy Council (CEC) to be eligible for the rebate – but Finn does advise extra caution and research. 

“The newer the brand is to Australia, the higher the risk of it not being around for the long haul and the less evidence you have that its quality and support are up to scratch,” says Finn. 

“To counter the risk of a new product, use an older, established install company. If you use a brand new company with brand new brands, you have double jeopardy!”

6. The installer’s ABN is suspiciously new

When you buy solar, you want installers that are professional and knowledgeable with a proven track record. There are plenty of them out there, but there’s also a slew of newly-created companies chasing the rebate windfall. 

Finn says to be careful of newcomers and to . If it has only been registered since April 2025, when the government rebate was first announced, then that’s a red flag and you should tread carefully.

7. Swapping out components for cheaper ones

It’s a shady tactic as old as time: advertise a brand or product then – surprise! – it’s no longer available so you get offered another type instead.

To avoid a battery bait-and-switch, you should always read the fine print (no matter how long it is) before you sign on. 

“Installers sometimes have a clause that says they can swap components for ‘similar’, which is a huge red flag,” says Finn.

“If a company genuinely can’t get hold of the hardware they’ve quoted, they should talk to you and create a new quote for new hardware, which you can then accept or decline.”

The post Bad solar battery deals: The red flags to watch out for appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.

As an electricity or gas customer you have two options: you can pay the same rate at all times, or you can pay different peak and off-peak rates based on the time of day.

The latter is known as dynamic pricing. The idea behind choosing this type of energy plan – which is based on time-of-use or demand pricing – is that you can save money by avoiding peak usage times and benefit from cheaper rates during off-peak hours.

Dynamic pricing is simple in theory, but the plans themselves are highly complex and many customers can struggle to juggle the many variables in a cost-effective way.

But flat rate plans can also have confusing information about fees and charges – and about crucial features such as hardship support or changes in benefits – and comparing one to another is far from easy.

Across the National Energy Market (Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania) there were a staggering 145,500 different energy plans available in 2025. If you wanted to switch to a new plan similar to the one you were on – whether it was a dynamic or flat rate plan – you could have been offered up to 233 options.

One reason for the colossal number of plans is that energy retailers are constantly trotting out new ones with cheaper rates to lure in new customers, while leaving existing customers on older plans where prices continually go up. It’s been well established that customer loyalty is repaid with increasingly worse deals.

Dynamic pricing not really working

Dynamic pricing is an approach to energy consumption that requires careful control of your energy usage.

With time-of-use tariffs, your rates are cheaper at off-peak times. With demand tariffs, rates are based on the highest amount of electricity used for one 30-minute block over the monthly billing cycle. This level of usage then determines how much customers pay in the demand period set by the retailer for the entire billing cycle. The different ins and outs from plan to plan can defy comprehension.

In both cases, you would need to stop using appliances that draw a lot of energy when everyone else is using them, which is generally in the late afternoon or evening.

That may not be such a big deal when it comes to dishwashers and washing machines, but these household mainstays generally only account for around 10% of household energy use, according to the advocacy group Energy Consumers Australia (ECA). It’s heating and cooling appliances that really eat up the kilowatts.

Variable pricing leading to bigger bills

Recent research from ECA reveals that it’s not realistic for many customers to avoid heating or cooling when it’s needed most during peak hours.

The households that manage to do this as a budgeting strategy are generally struggling to make ends meet. Among other things, they don’t have the solar devices that wealthier households have, which can potentially justify going with a dynamic pricing plan as long as you can understand it.

A report released by the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) late last year found that demand tariff plans were the most expensive types of plan in the state in 2024–25 for customers without solar, costing them $100 to $300 more a year than flat rate or time-of-use plans.

For households with solar, demand tariff bills were still $150 to $200 higher than the other options. Demand tariff plans are so complicated that even the federal government’s Energy Made Easy comparison site can’t figure the total annual costs.

A report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), also released late last year, found that 420,000 energy customers were on complex energy plans in 2025, a 40% increase over the previous year. The report aptly describes their complexity.

“Complex plans use a combination of multiple cost reflective pricing elements, including time of use, seasonal pricing, multiple usage blocks and demand charges. For example, a complex plan could involve time of use pricing with a demand charge. These plans include a complex set of pricing signals for customers to respond to if they wish to reduce their electricity bill.”

Six out of 10 don’t understand their bills

In a recent submission to the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) review of energy retailer guidelines, ECA called for standardising information across all energy plans so it’s clear what you’re paying for and so there’s a way to compare one energy offer to another that makes sense to the average customer.

ECA says 60% of the 4000 homeowners it recently surveyed aren’t sure how their energy costs are calculated, and 82% said they hadn’t switched energy providers over the previous 12 months.

Switching rates have been low for a long time. The ACCC recently renewed its ongoing call to energy customers to take charge of their energy costs and regularly switch plans or providers. It reported in December that customers who’ve been on the same electricity plan for three years are paying around $221 a year more than customers who are on newer plans.

Another ACCC statistic suggests a market in disarray. Nearly 2.5 million customers are paying prices at or above the default offer – the regulated safety net price for people who don’t engage with the market – and more than 400,000 of these customers are paying more than 10% over the default offer.

It means that many market offers – which are meant to be cheaper – are more expensive than default offers.

In line with this topsy turvy state of the market, 73% of energy customers were not on the best offer available from their retailer in 2024–25.

“Loyalty penalties are alive and well in the retail electricity market,” says ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey. “So the very best thing people can do to save money is to switch plans – either moving to a cheaper plan offered by their existing retailer or changing retailers.”

Keep it simple please

The ECA survey reveals a truth that may not come as a surprise: most of us (58%) just want a fair price and good customer service from our energy retailer, not a daily barrage of different plans that may or may not save us money.

The 42% who are willing to engage in this complicated market and deal with complex energy plans could be described as people who are riding the wave of the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. They’re likely to have the latest solar technology and monitoring tools.

But in both cases, as ECA points out, customers don’t want to be confronted with energy plans they don’t understand.

ECA manager of consumer advocacy Claire Ohk tells ĚÇĐÄVlog that complex energy plans are a big problem for consumers.

“Complex pricing means prices can change depending on the time of the day, the time of the week, the day of the week, the season and how you use energy across these different timeframes. People enter these plans without really understanding them,” says Ohk.

Different plans with the same name are a case in point (and were the subject of a designated complaint from ĚÇĐÄVlog to the ACCC last year).

“For many households the name of the plan is the most recognizable form of their contract,” Ohk says. “If retailers reuse that plan name but they change the prices or terms, that results in a lot of confusion and disengagement. It really undermines trust for consumers.”

Push for better outcomes for consumers

Ohk says a central argument Energy Consumers Australia is making to the regulator is that guidelines for how retailers communicate with customers should have an outcomes-based objective, and the outcome should be making it a lot easier for customers to understand their plan, compare plans and find cheaper ones.

“It’s not just the standard information that they need to put into the bill or the letters that they send to consumers. It’s about putting that outcomes obligation on retailers to make sure that they’re thinking proactively about whether this complex plan that they’ve offered would actually work for this particular consumer or not.”

In short, energy customers shouldn’t have to work so hard to understand the plan they’re on or constantly switch plans in order to get a better deal. And guidelines only go so far.

“Guideline improvements are important, but I don’t think they’re a substitute for structural reform. The system still relies way too heavily on consumers to monitor and switch constantly, and that’s just not appropriate for an essential service,” Ohk says.

“In a healthy market, consumers should be able to expect to get fair outcomes by default. It really shows that a consumer duty is needed to make sure energy retailers are thinking proactively about providing the best outcome for consumers.”

The post Dynamic energy pricing is leaving customers confused and paying more appeared first on ĚÇĐÄVlog.