Solar export explained — what your surplus energy is worth

What happens to electricity you don’t use?

When your solar panels produce more electricity than your home is using at that moment, the surplus flows out to the grid. What you get for that surplus — and how you get it — depends on where you live. Some countries pay a fixed rate per kWh, some credit your bill, and some net your exports against your imports so you only pay for the difference. The generic term “feed-in tariff” is often used loosely for all of these, but they work quite differently in practice.

Not all export schemes are the same

Across the markets Photonik covers, export compensation falls into a few broad categories:

• Fixed feed-in tariff — a set rate per kWh exported, often published by a regulator or energy commission. Germany’s EEG surplus tariff and Thailand’s residential buy-back rate are examples. These are the easiest to model because the number is published and relatively stable.
• Retailer-set export rate — the government sets a minimum (sometimes near zero), but your actual rate depends on which retailer you choose. The UK’s Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) and Australian state schemes (e.g. Victorian minimum feed-in) work this way. Rates can vary significantly between providers.
• Net metering — your exports offset your imports, often on a monthly or annual cycle. If you export 100 kWh and import 120 kWh, you pay for 20 kWh. This is common in the United States (Florida, parts of Texas), Mexico, the Philippines, and parts of India. The effective “value” of each exported kWh depends on the retail rate you would have paid.
• Net billing / bill credits — your exports earn credits, but not at the full retail rate. Brazil’s distributed generation framework (SCEE under Law 14.300) and Poland’s prosumer net-billing settlement work this way. The credit value is typically lower than what you pay for a kWh from the grid.
• Hourly or time-varying export value — what you earn changes by hour, day, and season. California’s NEM 3.0 uses hourly Avoided Cost Calculator (ACC) values; some Australian retailers offer time-of-use export plans. A midday kWh exported in spring may be worth far less than an evening kWh in summer.
• Market-linked or wholesale-indexed — your export credit tracks wholesale electricity prices. Italy’s Ritiro Dedicato and some South African municipal arrangements reference market prices, which shift with supply and demand.

Some markets blend these models — for example, the Netherlands currently uses annual netting (saldering) but is transitioning to a direct export compensation model from 2027. Understanding which model applies to you matters more than comparing headline numbers across countries.

Retail vs export credits by market

Export compensation is not one global “feed-in tariff”: it differs by country, state or region, retailer, time of day, and sometimes season. The rates below are indicative estimates, not live quotes — your actual rate may be higher or lower depending on your provider and plan. To see what you really earn, check the export rate on your electricity bill or ask your retailer directly.

For a more accurate picture, the full Photonik app lets you enter your own 24-hour tariff schedule alongside detailed daily and annual consumption, generation, and export profiles — giving results tailored to your actual usage rather than these broad averages.

Markets in the table below are listed in alphabetical order by name.

Why export rates differ so much by location

Export compensation reflects local grid economics, not a universal value of sunlight. Markets with high solar penetration (parts of Australia, California, southern Germany) often see midday wholesale prices drop as rooftop generation peaks — which pushes export values down. Markets with expensive daytime imports (the Philippines, South Africa, parts of the UK) can sustain higher export credits because each kWh displaced is worth more to the grid.

Regulation plays a role too. Some governments set a guaranteed floor (Germany’s EEG, Thailand’s buy-back rate), while others leave pricing entirely to retailers or utilities (South Australia, Texas). The result is that two homeowners in different states of the same country can see very different export values on their bills.

Government incentive policy is another major factor. In the early days of rooftop solar, many governments deliberately set generous tariffs to kickstart adoption. Germany’s original EEG rates were well above market value, and Australia went even further — New South Wales offered a gross generation tariff of 60–66¢/kWh for every kilowatt-hour produced, regardless of whether it was used in the home or exported. Victoria ran a similar scheme on a net basis. These rates were never meant to reflect the value of solar electricity; they were subsidies designed to build the market. Once rooftop penetration reached critical mass, the incentive had done its job and rates were wound back toward the underlying economic value of the energy. Understanding this history helps explain why today’s export rates look so much lower — they are closer to what the energy is actually worth to the grid, rather than an above-market incentive.

Time of day and season matter as well. A kWh exported at midday in spring — when every solar system is producing — is typically worth less than a kWh exported on a winter evening when demand is high. Markets with time-of-use export pricing (California, some Australian retailers) make this explicit; in flat-rate markets the averaging is hidden inside the single published number.

Self-consumption vs export — where the real savings are

In most markets, a kWh you use directly from your own panels is worth more than a kWh you export. That is because self-consumed solar offsets the full retail electricity rate (what you would have paid the grid), while exported solar earns only the export credit. The buy–sell gap in the table above shows this difference per market.

A wide gap (common in Australia, Germany, and India) means self-consumption drives most of your savings, and the export rate is a secondary benefit. A narrow gap (Florida-style net metering, or Dutch netting while saldering still applies) means export and self-use are closer in value.

This is why solar payback has held up or improved in many markets even as export rates fell: retail electricity prices rose, equipment costs dropped, and the economics shifted toward avoiding purchases from the grid rather than selling surplus to it.

Batteries, VPPs, and shifting when you export

The timing problem

Solar panels produce the most electricity in the middle of the day — but most households use the most in the morning and evening. The chart below shows this mismatch for a typical home with rooftop solar. The orange curve (solar generation) peaks around midday, while the blue curve (household demand) peaks in the early evening.

Without a battery, most of that midday surplus is exported at whatever flat rate your market pays — often the lowest-value time of day, because every other solar home is exporting too. Then in the evening, when electricity is most expensive, you buy it back from the grid at the full retail rate.

How batteries change the equation

A battery lets you store that midday surplus and use or export it during the expensive evening hours. This changes the economics in two ways:

• Higher self-consumption — you use your own stored solar instead of buying from the grid at the evening peak rate, saving the full retail price per kWh.
• Higher-value exports — if you export from your battery during peak hours, the energy is worth more to the grid than a midday export. In markets with time-of-use export pricing, this difference can be substantial.

The flat export rates shown in the table above reflect what a solar-only system typically earns — mostly midday exports at low-value times. A battery system that shifts exports to peak hours can realistically earn closer to the retail electricity price, minus the retailer’s margin and network costs. As a rough guide, peak-shifted battery exports are often worth around 75% of the retail grid rate in markets where time-varying export or VPP participation is available.

Where can battery owners earn more today?

Not every market offers time-of-use export pricing or VPP programmes yet. The picture is changing rapidly, but as of mid-2026:

• Mature — Australia (NSW, SA, and emerging in Victoria), United Kingdom, South Africa, and California (NEM 3.0) all have operational TOU export tariffs or VPP programmes that let battery owners earn meaningfully more by timing their exports.
• Emerging — Germany (Sonnen VPP), the Netherlands (VPP pilots ahead of 2027 net-metering phase-out), Italy (UVAM aggregators), and parts of Texas have early-stage or niche programmes.
• Not yet available — France, Spain, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and the Philippines do not currently offer residential TOU export or VPP participation. In these markets, battery value comes almost entirely from increased self-consumption.

Even in “not yet” markets, regulation and metering infrastructure are evolving quickly. Smart meter rollouts are accelerating in most countries, and as grid operators face higher solar penetration, the incentive to reward flexible, well-timed exports will grow.

VPPs and vehicle-to-grid

Virtual power plant (VPP) programmes go a step further — your battery (or EV) responds to grid signals, exporting when the network needs it most. Compensation varies: some pay a flat annual fee, others pay per-event rates that can spike well above normal export values during grid stress. Model indicative VPP earnings with our VPP calculator.

Electric vehicles with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability can act as mobile batteries — storing cheap solar during the day and feeding it back in the evening. See Vehicle-to-grid (V2G).

The bottom line

Export compensation varies enormously — from near-zero minimums in some Australian states to effective retail-rate netting in parts of the US and Europe. Lower export rates in high-penetration markets often reflect solar success, not failure: there is simply more clean energy available during the day than the grid can absorb at premium prices.

For most homeowners, payback is increasingly driven by self-consumption, retail electricity prices, and installed cost. Export credits are a bonus — sometimes a significant one — but rarely the main event. Understanding your local export model (from the table above) helps you set realistic expectations and choose the right system and tariff plan.

Compare indicative system costs, savings, and payback across countries: Solar costs by country.

About the figures on this page

The export and grid rates shown in the table above are indicative defaults used by the Photonik calculator. They are based on publicly available regulatory benchmarks, published tariff schedules, and industry sources for each market — not live retailer quotes. Where a market uses time-varying, hourly, or retailer-specific pricing (for example California’s NEM 3.0 or the UK’s SEG), the figure shown is an illustrative midpoint, not the rate on any specific plan.

Solar-only vs battery estimates: the flat export rate in the table reflects what a solar-only system typically earns — mostly midday exports. Where we show a “solar + battery” estimate (for example on our cost comparison and location pages), we use an effective export rate of approximately 75% of the retail grid price to approximate peak-shifted battery exports. This is a simplification — actual battery export value depends on your tariff structure, VPP participation, and local regulation. For detailed 24-hour modelling, use the full Photonik calculator.

We use these defaults to make our cost and savings comparisons meaningful across countries and regions. The How export is priced column in the table explains the type of scheme behind each number. For the most accurate picture, check the current rate on your electricity bill or retailer’s website.

Export rate defaults were last reviewed in May 2026 and are updated periodically. Actual rates vary by state, retailer, tariff plan, time of day, and season.