WA solar feed-in tariff history: how Perth went from 40c to 2c per kWh

In 2010, a Perth household exporting solar power to the grid was paid 40 cents per kilowatt-hour. In 2026, the standard export rate on the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme (REBS) is 7.135 cents per kWh, and the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS) pays 10 cents per kWh during the 3pm to 9pm peak window and 2 cents per kWh the rest of the day. That's not a typo. Export payments have dropped by roughly 95% over sixteen years.

The reason is simple: solar in 2010 was an expensive, unproven technology that needed a subsidy to get established, and today it's mainstream. The subsidy did its job, so the government wound it back. That decline is also why battery storage now makes financial sense in a way it didn't in 2010. When export pays almost nothing, keeping your own solar and using it yourself is worth far more than selling it to Synergy.

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How has WA's solar export rate changed since 2010?

What did the original scheme pay?

WA's first solar export payment was the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), a time-limited program with two rates. FIT-40 paid 40 cents per kWh to households who applied between July 2010 and June 2011. FIT-20 paid a lower 20 cents per kWh to a short window of applicants in July 2011, before the government suspended new applications altogether from August 2011. Both rates locked in for 10 years from connection. The export rate was well above what households paid to import electricity at the time, so oversizing your system and exporting as much as possible was the obvious move.

The FIT and REBS are two separate schemes, not one scheme that got renamed as rates fell. Once the FIT closed to new applicants in August 2011, new solar connections moved onto a different scheme: the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme (REBS). REBS isn't a locked subsidy rate; it's reviewed annually against market value, and it's currently flat at 7.135 cents per kWh, the rate that still applies today to households on it. Households who locked in the original 40c or 20c FIT rate kept it for the full 10-year term regardless of what REBS or DEBS did afterward; those terms have now largely expired.

What changed when DEBS launched in 2020?

The WA Government launched the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS) on 31 August 2020, replacing REBS for new and upgraded systems. Synergy kept accepting REBS applications for a short grace period afterwards, closing them on 7 September 2020. Anyone whose application landed by that date could stay on REBS; every application after it goes on DEBS instead. A separate rule applies to move-ins: from 6 November 2020, taking over a property with an existing system means DEBS only.

DEBS splits the old flat rate into two:

• Peak: 10 cents per kWh, for exports between 3pm and 9pm
• Off-peak: 2 cents per kWh, for exports at any other time
• Daily cap: only the first 50kWh of combined peak and off-peak export each day earns a credit

That split is deliberate. The peak window lines up with WA's evening demand peak, when the grid actually needs the electricity. Exports outside that window, mostly around the middle of the day, are worth far less to the grid, and DEBS prices them that way. For the full mechanics of how DEBS bills are calculated, see DEBS explained: how Perth's solar feed-in tariff actually works.

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Why does a lower export rate make battery storage worth it?

At the original 40c export rate, selling solar was more valuable than using it yourself, so the right move was to maximise panels and export as much as possible. At 2 cents per kWh, that logic flips completely.

Self-consumed solar avoids paying for imported electricity instead of earning an export payment. On Synergy's A1 tariff, avoided import is worth 33.26 cents per kWh. On Midday Saver, the rate that actually applies to daytime solar use (the 9am to 3pm super off-peak window) is 8.852 cents per kWh. Either way, using your own solar beats exporting it at 2 cents by a wide margin: about 4 times more on Midday Saver, and around 17 times more on A1. For a closer look at that trade-off, see self-consume vs export: solar energy strategy for Perth households.

A battery lets you act on that gap. Instead of exporting daytime solar at 2c and buying it back at night, you store it and use it later. On the A1 tariff, charging from solar you'd otherwise export at 2c and discharging to avoid a 33.26c import gives you a spread of around 31 cents per kWh. That spread is the entire economic case for home batteries in WA today, and it barely existed in 2010, when export sometimes paid more than import. For the full numbers, see is a home battery worth it in Perth in 2026?.

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Why won't export rates go back up?

Solar generation in Perth peaks between 9am and 3pm, right when household electricity demand is at its lowest. On sunny days, so many households are exporting at once that the grid receives more electricity than it needs. Wholesale prices around midday can fall to zero, or even go negative.

Synergy buys REBS exports at a flat 7.135c/kWh no matter what that electricity is worth at the time, which means it's sometimes paying for power it can't sell without a loss. At the original 40c/kWh rate, that gap was wider still: a subsidy built into the scheme on purpose, to help solar get established. DEBS runs on the opposite logic. Its 2c off-peak rate reflects that midday solar has little grid value, and its 10c peak rate rewards exports in the evening, when demand is high and rooftop solar has stopped generating. If Midday Saver or a straight import tariff suits your household better than REBS or DEBS export timing, see Midday Saver + battery Perth: how to use off-peak charging to cut your power bill.

That evening-weighted pricing is the direction WA export tariffs are heading, not back toward a flat high rate. A system that can export reliably into the evening peak, which usually means pairing solar with a battery, will keep being worth more to the grid than one that exports whenever the sun happens to be out.

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What could change next?

Raising the 2c off-peak rate would just encourage more midday export, which is the thing the grid already has too much of. So WA has held the peak rate at 10c instead. A few things are worth keeping an eye on:

• Export limits. These could tighten further as rooftop solar keeps spreading across Perth.
• Negative pricing. In some Australian networks, wholesale prices go negative at midday when there's too much solar on the grid.
• Virtual power plants. VPP programs pay households for controllable export during high-demand evening periods, on top of whatever DEBS pays.

WA is also trialling a Solar Sponge tariff on the import side. See Solar Sponge tariff in Perth: is it better than Midday Saver? for where that has landed.

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What's the right system size for 2026 export rates?

Sizing logic has reversed since 2010:

1. 2010 (40c export): oversizing paid off. Every extra panel earned 40c per kWh exported, so bigger was better regardless of how much power you actually used.
2. 2026 (2c export, 33.26c import): self-consumption is what pays. Panels that generate more than your household uses during the day mostly earn 2c/kWh, a low return. A battery changes that: it absorbs the solar you'd otherwise export cheaply and releases it at night, avoiding the import cost instead.

For most Perth households, a system around 6.6kW of panels paired with a 10kWh battery covers daytime self-consumption and charges the battery for the evening. Sizing well beyond that mostly adds exports valued at 2c/kWh. For help matching capacity to your actual evening load, see how to size a home battery for Perth: matching capacity to your evening load.

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REBS or DEBS: which one should you be on?

If Synergy received your REBS application by 7 September 2020, you're on REBS at a flat 7.135 cents per kWh unless you've switched. Switching to DEBS is permanent, so it's worth checking which suits your household first.

DEBS tends to suit you if:

• You have a battery, or plan to add one, that can shift solar into the 3pm to 9pm peak export window
• Your household already exports meaningfully during that evening window
• You can shift some loads, like laundry or EV charging, to off-peak hours

REBS tends to suit you if:

• You don't have a battery and export mostly happens during the day, where REBS's flat 7.135c beats DEBS off-peak's 2c
• You're already on a tariff that doesn't reward evening flexibility and don't plan to change

For a full side-by-side of current rates and eligibility, see which buyback scheme are you on?.

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Export rates fell from 40c to 2c because solar stopped needing a subsidy and started needing a price signal instead. That's why battery storage, not panel count, is the thing worth getting right in 2026: self-consumption is where the value sits now.