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- AGL just cut solar feed-in tariffs to zero. Here's what to tell your customers today.
AGL just cut solar feed-in tariffs to zero. Here's what to tell your customers today.
AGL removed solar feed-in tariffs from July 1. Battery installs tripled in 2025. And a conversation about the problem every solar business has but nobody talks about.
Daniel Hartley — Energy Analyst & Tech Lead at TheSolarAI
July 03, 2026
THE SOLAR AI
Yesterday changed something for hundreds of thousands of Australian solar households.
This week also brought a report that puts the scale of what's happening in this market into perspective , and I want to share something personal at the end that came out of a podcast conversation this week that I think every installer reading this will recognise.
Four minutes. Let's go.
— Neel
UNDER 4 MINS - LET’S GO →
Feature Story
AGL JUST CUT SOLAR FEED-IN TARIFFS TO ZERO
From July 1, AGL removed feed-in tariffs entirely for customers on standard retail contracts. If your customer is on AGL's default plan, they now earn nothing for exported solar.
AGL removed feed-in tariffs for customers on Standard Retail Contracts entirely from 1 July 2026. If you are affected, you will earn 0c for exported solar.
Let that sit for a moment.
A solar household that installed panels expecting to earn something for the power they export back to the grid, now earns nothing for it. Not a small amount. Nothing.
As of 1 July 2026, IPART's official benchmark for NSW feed-in tariffs is 3.4 to 6.5c/kWh. The best available rates nationally remain at 10c/kWh from Alinta Energy and GloBird Energy, though these apply to specific plans and conditions.
What this means for your sales conversations this week:
This is not bad news for solar. It is the strongest possible argument for a battery that's existed in years.
A battery that charges from solar at midday and powers the home in the evening is now worth every cent of the avoided import rate , with zero offset from export earnings to muddy the calculation.
Lower feed-in tariffs widen the arbitrage between what you earn exporting (now 0–10c) and what you save not importing (29–37c). The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program rebate is available, reducing upfront cost significantly.
The pitch writes itself : “Your solar is generating power you're currently giving away for free. A battery means you use that power yourself — at the rate you'd otherwise be paying to import it. With the federal rebate, the payback period has never been shorter”
The Offer
📊 THE REPORT THAT PUTS 2026 IN PERSPECTIVE
What a chart. #homebatteries
When governments step in, communities step up.
A report from SunWiz shows a record 221,000 residential solar battery systems were installed in 2025, three times the installations of 2024. In total, the year delivered 4,790 MWh of storage, enough to power around 1.2 million homes during the four-hour evening peak. Energy Matters
As of the end of 2025, 4.6% of Australian homes have a battery installed, making Australia the 3rd largest utility-scale battery energy storage system market globally with over 25 gigawatt-hours of grid-scale storage under construction. In total, 13% of Australian solar PV deployments now host a battery. Energy Matters
The boom is far from over. And it just got a new accelerant — AGL handing installers the cleanest battery pitch they've ever had.
“We anticipate installation volumes to 2030 will be shaped by the interplay of declining rebates, falling battery costs, rising electricity prices, and rising demand for energy self-sufficiency. On balance, these forces point to sustained demand. The boom is far from over. “
The Spotlight
🎙️ FROM THE PODCAST THIS WEEK — THE THING I KEEP THINKING ABOUT
Pick my Brain Podcast
Alan Jones from Day One sat down with me this week at Cremorne Digital Hub. And then he asked a question I wasn't expecting.
Here's the context first.
LeadTrackAI — the AI engine powering Solar AI — solves one specific problem for solar and energy businesses: a lead submits a form, and nobody calls them back for two or three days. By then, the customer has forgotten they ever asked. The money spent on ads is gone. The opportunity is gone. The sale never happens.
Alan understood all of that within the first few minutes. And then he turned the mirror around.
"Are you applying the same discipline inside your own business that you sell to customers?"
Not as a criticism. As a genuine question worth sitting with before your next sales call.
Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/dEp-Mifm
The Essentials
⚡ WHAT ELSE CHANGED FROM JULY 1
The Solar Sharer Offer is live. Here's the one thing your customers need to know about it. Gif by turbotaxcanada on Giphy From 1 July 2026, households in NSW, SA and SE QLD with a smart meter can access three hours of free electricity during midday peak solar hours. This is part of a broader policy shift to use excess midday solar generation and reduce grid strain. The customers who benefit most: those with solar and a battery. The battery charges for free at midday, powers the home in the evening. The free window becomes genuinely free — not offset by higher rates outside it. The customers who benefit least: households without solar who can't shift their usage to 11am–2pm on a weekday. Which means your next conversation with a Solar Sharer enquiry is: "That plan works best when you have a battery to capture the free midday window. Without one, the higher rates at other times may wipe out the savings." | 🤖 THE 7-QUESTION LEAD QUALIFIER  Giphy Use it on every call. Manual today, let JAMES run it automatically tomorrow.
New Q6 context: AGL customers on standard contracts now earn zero for exported solar. That single data point makes the battery ROI case faster than any slide deck you could build. |
📰 🎁 ONE NUMBER WORTH KNOWING ABOUT YOUR OWN PIPELINE
Gif by clevis-consult on Giphy
221,000 batteries installed last year. AGL cutting export rates to zero. The Solar Sharer Offer creating a new wave of battery enquiries.
The market is giving solar businesses more reasons than ever to sell batteries. The only constraint — now as always — is response speed.
Most solar businesses running 60 leads a month are leaking between $40,000 and $120,000 every month. Not from bad leads. From the gap between when the enquiry arrives and when someone picks up.
Three minutes. Free. No email required to see your result.
AGL handed you the clearest battery pitch in years. 221,000 systems installed last year proves the market is real. And there's a podcast episode this week that's worth 40 minutes of your time — link above.
Move fast.
— nEEL Solar AI | www.thesolarai.com
📩 New here? Subscribe free: newsletter.thesolarai.com 🔁 Know an installer sitting on cold leads? Forward this. It might change their week.
