Solar Export Prices

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cshwone

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#324891 8-Jun-2026 19:40

Simplistically, I pay 39 cents per kWH to import electricity. When I export excess, Genesis pay me 12.5 cents per kWH. However, in the meantime they have immediately sold that onto someone else at 39 cents.

Given that we, as a nation, are under producing renewable energy, where is the logic for the consumer in this?

Jase2985

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#3501377 8-Jun-2026 19:58

There is not. it's all profit for the retailer.

But you are on a horrible plan if that's your rates. Unless you have an EV and do a lot of charging at chargenet you could get a lot higher export rates elsewhere if thats what you are wanting.

But in reality you should be self consuming as much as you can.

Stu1

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#3501379 8-Jun-2026 20:09

We moved from them for this reason, Meridan offered 17 c and 300 credit , still 29c import though. Gotta make the best of what you can consume.

mattwnz

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#3501389 8-Jun-2026 21:18

You could always buy batteries to store and then use that electricity you are producing. IMO all solar panels effectively do is reduce the amount people spend on power at a big upfront cost. If I was installing them I would want to go off the grid completely so I am not also paying daily grid connection fees which keep increasing.

timmmay

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#3501390 8-Jun-2026 21:27

mattwnz:

You could always buy batteries to store and then use that electricity you are producing. IMO all solar panels effectively do is reduce the amount people spend on power at a big upfront cost. If I was installing them I would want to go off the grid completely so I am not also paying daily grid connection fees which keep increasing.

I briefly looked at that, but if you have a week of bad weather you would need a generator to charge the batteries, which turns out to be expensive when you account for purchase, fuel, maintenance, etc.

boosacnoodle

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#3501391 8-Jun-2026 21:28

Some countries do have a setup like you’re describing, while others don’t.

The logic in NZ is that retail power prices are made up of:

Generation - what you’re referring to
Transmission - from the generator to the distributor
Distribution - from the distributor to your house
Metering
Electricity Authority Levy
GST
Retailer cost of sales / margin

Whether the house next to you gets your exported solar - or not - is treated as irrelevant. Hence, you pay all the above costs when importing but are only paid for the generation when exporting, like all other generators.

And whether that’s fair or not will vary depending on who you ask.

gzt

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#3501395 8-Jun-2026 22:09

cshwone: Given that we, as a nation, are under producing renewable energy, where is the logic for the consumer in this?

NZ produces about 85% electricity from renewable sources. As I understand it, it is peak demand that is the problem we currently fill with non-renewable climate gas emissions.

Imo the export needs a peak rate to add to the storage incentive if you want solar to displace non-renewables used during peaks. With that kind of incentive you would probably export 7am-11am and 5pm-9pm and charge your storage at other times.

Adding, there is an obvious future synergy with V2G storage availability exactly mapping those hours on average. Home solar is a logical element to serve growing residential demand one to one with the increase in number of homes.

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mattwnz

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#3501399 8-Jun-2026 22:32

I think NZ really needs to invest in battery farms to store all this solar and wind generation. There seems to be a lot of talk about NZ going nuclear at the moment, but that actually has a massive cost in many different ways and I understand both solar and wind are a lot cheaper. Not to mention that it relies on importing the fuel so we are still reliant on energy costs from overseas. This LNG plant that the government has got involved with is imo going to be an expensive big white elephant

gzt

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#3501404 8-Jun-2026 23:14

A large grid scale battery just opened near Glenbrook:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/contact-energy-opens-151m-glenbrook-grid-battery-to-boost-winter-energy-security/2OWF7M4IQZENHFRRRPU7XJFRPY/

I'm aware of at least two more on the way. In the near future the coming generation of sodium iron batteries are likely to be ideal for grid scale and home solar applications and will eventually be lower cost.

Edit: apologies getting off-topic here back to solar tariffs..

Aucklandjafa

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#3501410 9-Jun-2026 07:06

timmmay:

mattwnz:

You could always buy batteries to store and then use that electricity you are producing. IMO all solar panels effectively do is reduce the amount people spend on power at a big upfront cost. If I was installing them I would want to go off the grid completely so I am not also paying daily grid connection fees which keep increasing.

I briefly looked at that, but if you have a week of bad weather you would need a generator to charge the batteries, which turns out to be expensive when you account for purchase, fuel, maintenance, etc.

you can rent them pretty cheap these days

wellygary

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#3501424 9-Jun-2026 09:12

mattwnz:

I think NZ really needs to invest in battery farms to store all this solar and wind generation.

Batteries are a really expensive way to store electricity, they're fine for daily peaks of a couple of hours or so,

But NZ's issue is dry years, where hydro generation is short for weeks on end. its a problem that is too expensive for batteries, Hence people look at things like raising Pukaki or Onslow...

pdh

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#3501576 9-Jun-2026 14:55

Your major requirement from the power company is _reliable_ supply of electricity.
Any time of the day or week or year.

They build dams, buy turbines, build distribution grids... to allow them to supply NZ with power all day - every day.

They need to recover money from that power - to pay for running their infrastructure.

Now you want to reduce the power they could sell - power they've invested to have 'in stock' - so that they can sell your power instead.

And give the money to you.

Have I got that right ?

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Jase2985

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#3501579 9-Jun-2026 15:17

mattwnz:

I think NZ really needs to invest in battery farms to store all this solar and wind generation. There seems to be a lot of talk about NZ going nuclear at the moment, but that actually has a massive cost in many different ways and I understand both solar and wind are a lot cheaper. Not to mention that it relies on importing the fuel so we are still reliant on energy costs from overseas. This LNG plant that the government has got involved with is imo going to be an expensive big white elephant

every kW/h generated by solar/wind is potentially a kW/h not needed to be generated by hydro which can then save that water for another time when there is less wind/solar and more need, like during a dry year.

wellygary

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#3501590 9-Jun-2026 17:06

Jase2985:

every kW/h generated by solar/wind is potentially a kW/h not needed to be generated by hydro which can then save that water for another time when there is less wind/solar and more need, like during a dry year.

The problem is that NZ's hydro storage is only about 4-5Twh. Our total annual hydro Generation is ~25 TWH, so we empty and refill the dams a net 5 times a year,

An extra 5Twh would require doubling NZ's Total Wind and Solar capacity.. but there is also the 6 Twh of Coal and Gas generation that we are trying to displace, and that's without the 1/2Twh annual growth

10Twh is about 25% of NZ's total generation and would be equivalent to sticking 10KW on about 700.000 homes, ... so somewhere north of $10 billion