What Is the Sun Tax? Solar Export Charges Explained

The "sun tax" is the nickname for solar export charges, which electricity networks are now allowed to apply when rooftop solar systems send power into the grid during the middle of the day.

It is not a government tax. It is a network tariff, set by your local electricity distributor and approved by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), that charges a small amount for midday exports above a free allowance and, on most networks, pays a credit for exports in the late afternoon and evening.

Networks bill these charges to your retailer, not to you. Whether you see the charge on your bill depends on how your retailer builds it into your plan, which in practice usually means a lower midday solar feed-in tariff rather than a separate line item.

Quick facts

• The sun tax is a network charge on solar exported between roughly 10am and 4pm, and it only applies to exports above a free daily allowance.
• The rule change that allowed it was made by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) in August 2021, and networks must offer a free basic export level for 10 years.
• In 2026-27, export charges apply on all three NSW networks (Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy) and on SA Power Networks in South Australia.
• Victorian networks offer two-way tariffs on an opt-in basis only, because the Victorian Government does not support mandatory export charges.
• Queensland's networks withdrew their two-way pricing proposals for 2025-30, and the ACT and Tasmania do not apply residential export charges in 2026-27.
• The charges are small: between 0.75c and 1.86c per kWh before GST in 2026-27, depending on the network.
• Using more of your own solar at midday, or storing it in a battery, is the most direct way to stay under the free allowance.

Where the sun tax applies in 2026-27

Your exposure depends on which electricity distributor owns the poles and wires in your street, not on which retailer you use. The table below sets out the residential export charges for 2026-27. All rates exclude GST and are the network prices charged to retailers.

NSW

NSW has the widest coverage. Ausgrid's 2026-27 network price list sets its small customer export tariff (EA029) at 1.2320c per kWh for midday exports above the free threshold and a credit of 3.8551c per kWh for exports between 4pm and 9pm.

Ausgrid's two-way solar pricing page explains that the free threshold is calculated monthly (212 kWh in a 31-day month, 205 kWh in a 30-day month) and that the tariff has applied to all export-ready residential and small business customers since July 2025, after a year as an opt-in tariff.

Endeavour Energy sets out its prosumer tariff (N61) in its 2026-27 pricing proposal. It charges 1.8600c per kWh for exports between 10am and 2pm above a free allowance of 248 kWh in a 31-day month, and pays a credit for exports between 4pm and 8pm on working weekdays of 11.7131c per kWh from November to March and 3.4702c per kWh from April to October.

New and upgrading solar customers have been assigned to it since 1 July 2025 with the option to opt out, while existing solar customers can opt in. The same document says existing export customers will be moved onto the two-way tariff with no opt-out from the 2029-34 regulatory period.

Essential Energy, which covers around 95 per cent of NSW across regional, rural and remote areas, publishes its residential solar export tariff (BLNREX2) in its 2026-27 network price list. The charge is 0.8277c per kWh for exports between 10am and 3pm above 7.5 kWh a day, and the credit is 11.7212c per kWh for exports between 5pm and 8pm.

It applies automatically with Essential's Sun Soaker time-of-use tariff, which is the default for new connections, smart meter upgrades and new solar or battery installations. Essential says customers can avoid the export tariff until 1 July 2028 by opting into its demand-based tariff, after which the export charge will be added to demand tariffs as well.

South Australia

SA Power Networks introduced its export tariff on 1 July 2025. Households with a smart (interval) meter pay 1c per kWh for exports above 9 kWh a day between 10am and 4pm, and any unused free allowance rolls over to other days in the same billing cycle. Households with an older accumulation meter pay 0.75c per kWh for exports above 11 kWh a day.

The tariff applies to residential and small business systems with inverters up to 30kW, so larger commercial solar systems sit outside it. Customers on SA Power Networks' opt-in Electrify tariff can also receive a credit of 12 to 13c per kWh for exports between 5pm and 9pm from November to March.

Victoria

Victorian networks can only apply export charges on an opt-in basis. CitiPower's 2026-31 tariff structure explanatory statement states that the Victorian Government is strongly opposed to mandatory export charges, so the networks have not added export pricing to their default tariffs.

The AER's final decision for United Energy approved optional two-way tariffs with a free basic export level of 1 kWh a day, noting that this aligns with the Victorian Government's preference for cost-reflective tariffs to remain optional. If you are in Victoria, you will only face an export charge if you choose a plan built on one of these tariffs.

Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania

Energex and Ergon Energy proposed two-way pricing for 2025-30 but withdrew it, and the AER's final decision on their tariff structures accepted that withdrawal and encouraged the networks to test two-way pricing through trials instead.

In the ACT, Evoenergy withdrew its proposed residential export reward tariff from its 2024-29 tariff structure statement, as set out in the AER's final decision for Evoenergy. TasNetworks is running a small two-way trial tariff in 2026-27 and has said its trials are preparing for export tariffs in the 2029-34 regulatory period.

How solar export charges work

Every two-way network tariff has the same three parts, although the numbers and times differ by network.

1. A free allowance. You can export a set amount each day during the charge window without any charge. This is the "basic export level" that the AER's Export Tariff Guidelines describe as the no-additional-cost export service every network must provide to customers with rooftop solar.
2. A charge. Exports above the free allowance during the middle of the day attract a charge per kWh.
3. A credit. On most networks, exports during the evening peak earn a credit per kWh, which is paid on top of whatever feed-in tariff your retailer offers.

Exports outside the charge and credit windows are neither charged nor credited by the network. Most networks also total the free allowance across the billing period rather than resetting it each day, so a cloudy day with low exports can offset a sunny one.

The reason for the time windows is that midday solar output across a suburb can exceed local demand, which pushes up voltages and limits how much more solar the network can host. The evening credit is designed to reward households, mostly those with batteries, for exporting when demand is highest.

Ausgrid's two-way solar pricing page frames the tariff as a way to encourage customers to use their solar at midday or export later in the day, and to attribute the cost of handling more exports to the customers driving that change.

How much the sun tax costs

The charges are small next to the value of using your own solar. The networks' own estimates, which assume a retailer passes the tariff on in full, are:

• Ausgrid: a typical 5kW solar customer would pay about $13.30 a year in charges, offset by about $6.70 in evening credits, according to Ausgrid's export tariff fact sheet. That fact sheet was prepared using the original 1.2c charge, so 2026-27 figures will differ slightly.
• Endeavour Energy: the median exporting customer would be about $5 a year better off, and 91% of exporting customers would be either unaffected or rewarded, according to Endeavour's 2026-27 pricing proposal.
• SA Power Networks: an average household would pay about $1.50 a month, and a 5kW system with medium self-use and medium exports would pay about $19.42 a year, according to SA Power Networks.

Working out your own sun tax

There is no need for a separate sun tax calculator if you can get your interval data from your retailer or your smart meter app. At network level, the sum is:

(midday exports minus free allowance) × export charge, minus (evening exports × evening credit)

For example, take an Ausgrid household that exports 307 kWh between 10am and 3pm in November and 60 kWh between 4pm and 9pm. November has 30 days, so the free allowance is 205 kWh. The household pays the network charge on 102 kWh, which is 102 × 1.2320c, or about $1.26 before GST. Its evening exports earn 60 × 3.8551c, or about $2.31 before GST. At network level the household is about $1.05 ahead for the month.

This is the network price charged to the retailer. Your retail plan may pass it on differently, so use it as a guide to the size of the effect rather than an exact bill figure.

Will you see the sun tax on your bill?

Usually not as a separate line. Networks charge your retailer, and each retailer decides how to reflect that in its plans. Ausgrid states plainly that retailers can change the value of the charge and the credit, so what appears on your bill may not match the network price. Endeavour Energy expects most retailers to pass it on by lowering feed-in tariffs during the middle of the day and raising them in the evening.

You can see this pattern in NSW. IPART's time-of-day feed-in tariff benchmarks for 2026-27 sit at around 3 to 4c per kWh for most of the day and rise above 17c per kWh in the late afternoon and evening, and IPART aligns its benchmark windows with each network's export tariff times. When you compare plans, look at three things:

• the feed-in tariff during the middle of the day,
• whether there is a higher evening feed-in rate, and
• whether the plan shows a separate export charge.

A plan with a higher flat feed-in tariff may still cost more overall if its usage rates or daily supply charge are higher, so compare the whole plan against your usage pattern.

Why the sun tax was introduced

Until 2021, the National Electricity Rules did not allow networks to charge for exports. The AEMC's August 2021 rule change on access, pricing and incentive arrangements for distributed energy resources removed that prohibition, as the AER explains on its Export Tariff Guidelines page. The rule came with protections set out in the AER's consultation material:

• networks must offer a basic export level for 10 years, and customers cannot be charged for exports below it,
• existing solar customers could not be put on two-way pricing before 1 July 2025, and
• the AER will only approve two-way pricing where a network can show it is justified.

The case the networks make is about fairness between customers. As more homes install solar, networks need to spend money so the grid can carry exports as well as imports. SA Power Networks says its export tariff means those network upgrades are funded by the customers who benefit from exporting, rather than by households that cannot export.

How to reduce or avoid the sun tax

The most effective steps all involve exporting less in the middle of the day or more in the evening.

• Move flexible use into the middle of the day. Run the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and pool pump on timers during the charge window. SA Power Networks suggests pre-cooling or pre-heating your home and charging an electric vehicle during the day if you can.
• Heat water with solar. If your hot water runs on controlled load, ask whether it can be scheduled for the middle of the day rather than overnight.
• Charge an EV at midday. Charging an electric vehicle during the day uses solar that would otherwise be exported. If you charge at home, an EV electricity plan can lower the cost of the charging you do outside solar hours.
• Add a battery. A battery stores midday solar for use in the evening, and on networks with an evening credit, exporting from a battery after 4pm or 5pm can earn more than it costs. A virtual power plant may add further payments.
• Choose a plan that suits your export pattern. If you export a lot in the evening, a plan that passes through the evening credit or pays a higher evening feed-in rate will suit you better than a flat-rate plan.
• Consider a free midday power plan. If you are in an area with the Solar Sharer Offer, the free midday window gives you another reason to shift use into the same hours the export charge applies.

If you are not sure which network or tariff you are on, ask your retailer. For help reading the rest of your bill, see our guide to understanding your electricity bill.

Rates are 2026-27 network prices excluding GST, checked against distributor price lists and AER documents on 26 October 2026. Network prices change each 1 July.

Photo by mugi jo on Unsplash