Is solar worth it in Australian Capital Territory?

A system sized to that bill

Assumes a $180/month bill and that you use about 40% of what you generate as you generate it — the rest is exported at 3.0c. A battery shifts that balance, and in Australian Capital Territory it shifts it a long way.

Why the rebate shrinks every January

33 certificates at $38 each — 4.9 kW × 1.382 zone rating × 5 years deeming. The scheme closes at the end of 2030, so the deeming period — and the rebate — shrinks every January. Certificate price is market-set and assumed conservatively below the $40 Clearing House ceiling. Installing a year later on the same system costs you roughly $251 in lost rebate.

Feed-in tariffs here are entirely voluntary

The ACT does not regulate what retailers pay for exported solar. Feed-in tariffs are voluntary, rates are not set by any regulator, and the ACT Government itself notes they vary significantly between retailers. In a market this small — the fewest residential offers of the six jurisdictions we cover — that variation matters more than it would elsewhere, because there are fewer offers to average out a bad one. It is worth comparing feed-in rates specifically rather than judging a plan on its usage rate alone.

Sources: ACT Government — solar feed-in tariff

What's different about Australian Capital Territory

Most offers here are time-of-use, not flat

25 of the 41 residential offers on market price power differently through the day, and they are set aside from the headline rate because a time-of-use plan cannot be compared to a flat one without knowing when a household actually uses power. It matters for solar: on a time-of-use plan the power you displace at 2pm is usually worth less than the evening peak you still buy, so a battery earns its keep sooner.

One solar zone, so this figure holds statewide

Unlike most of the country, Australian Capital Territory sits entirely inside STC zone 3. There is no regional postcode that earns more certificates than Canberra, and none that earns fewer — the rebate below is the rebate anywhere here.

The market here

These figures are medians across 16 single-rate residential offers from 11 retailers, with 25 time-of-use offers set aside as not comparable. Canberra sits in STC zone 3.

The retailers whose current offers feed these figures are ActewAGL, Alinta Energy, CovaU, Diamond Energy, Dodo, EnergyAustralia, Indigo Power, Momentum Energy, Origin Energy, Red Energy and Tango Energy. That is who is actually selling power to households here this week — not a list of every licensed retailer, and not the same list as the state next door.

The honest verdict on Australian Capital Territory

Expensive power and a single solar zone make the ACT straightforward to model: the figures below apply across the territory, with no regional variation to account for. The complication is the size of the market rather than the physics — with the smallest set of residential offers of the six, there is less room to improve your position by switching, which puts more of the case on generating and using your own power.

The other states

Compare every state side by side →

Where these numbers come from

• Power price — Median usage rate across 16 single-rate residential market offers from 11 retailers. Time-of-use offers are excluded — they are not comparable to a flat rate without a household load profile. (measured, as at 2026-08-23)
• Feed-in tariff — Median flat solar feed-in rate across 42 residential market offers. Time-varying feed-in tariffs are excluded. (measured, as at 2026-08-23)
• Solar yield — Clean Energy Regulator STC zone 3 rating (1.382 MWh/kW/yr) for Canberra, postcode 2600. A deemed radiation-based figure used to calculate certificate entitlements, not a measured or simulated output. (modelled, as at 2020-01-01)

How every one of these numbers is worked out →

Sources: Australian Energy Regulator — Consumer Data Right, Product Reference Data, Clean Energy Regulator — postcode zone ratings for solar PV systems.