A system sized to that bill
| System size | 5.5 kW, to cover a $180/month bill |
|---|---|
| Before rebate | $5,533 at $1.00/W |
| STC rebate | −$1,444 (38 certificates) |
| You pay | $4,089 |
| Generates | 7,646 kWh a year |
| Saves in year one | $1,001 |
| Pays for itself in | 4.0 years |
| Over 25 years | $27,935 net |
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 Queensland it shifts it a long way.
Median of current single-rate residential offers and feed-in tariffs, Australian Energy Regulator — Consumer Data Right, Product Reference Data, as at 2026-08-23
Why the rebate shrinks every January
38 certificates at $38 each — 5.5 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 $289 in lost rebate.
Computed at build time from the SRES deeming rule · certificates assumed at $38, below the $40 Clearing House ceiling
Two feed-in regimes inside one state
Queensland is really two markets. Outside South East Queensland, competition is thin enough that the Queensland Competition Authority sets a regulated feed-in tariff for eligible Ergon Energy Retail and Origin customers, using an avoided-cost method it has applied since 2014–15; the 2026–27 rate was determined on 5 June 2026 and applies from 1 July 2026. Inside South East Queensland there is no regulated rate at all — retailers compete and set their own. The figures on this page are market offers, so they describe the south-east. If you are on Ergon in regional Queensland, look up the regulated rate instead: it is set for you, not negotiated.
Sources: QCA — regional Queensland feed-in tariff 2026–27 · Queensland Government — solar feed-in tariff for regional Queensland
What's different about Queensland
Most offers here are time-of-use, not flat
27 of the 45 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.
Your postcode may be worth more than the capital
Queensland spans STC zones 1, 2, 3. This page uses Brisbane's rating of 1.382, because that is where most of the population is — but a system in zone 1 is rated 1.622, about 17% higher. That lifts both the power a system makes and the number of certificates it earns, so a regional install is cheaper and more productive than the figures here suggest.
The market here
These figures are medians across 18 single-rate residential offers from 11 retailers, with 27 time-of-use offers set aside as not comparable. Brisbane sits in STC zone 3 — though Queensland spans zones 1 and 2 and 3, and this page uses the capital's.
The retailers whose current offers feed these figures are Alinta Energy, CovaU, Diamond Energy, Dodo, EnergyAustralia, Indigo Power, Momentum Energy, Origin Energy, Powershop, 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 Queensland
Good sun, middling power prices and a feed-in rate that is unremarkable but not derisory. The thing most likely to change your answer here is geography rather than equipment: Queensland spans three solar zones, and a system in the far north or west is rated materially higher than one in Brisbane — which lifts both what it generates and how many certificates it earns. Check which zone your postcode is in before assuming the figures below apply to you.
The other states
Compare every state side by side →
Where these numbers come from
- Power price — Median usage rate across 18 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 58 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 Brisbane, postcode 4000. A deemed radiation-based figure used to calculate certificate entitlements, not a measured or simulated output. This state spans zones 1 and 2 and 3; the capital's zone is published because that is where the population is. (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.