Solar export tariffs: How businesses can earn more from excess power

With more businesses investing in solar power, understanding how to maximize the financial return has become increasingly important. Harvey Rowlinson, managing director of Purely Energy, explains how solar export tariffs work, why supplier choice matters, and why using more of your own electricity often delivers the greatest value.

The solar export process works as follows. A business generates its own solar power, through their installed solar panels and uses what it needs on site, and sells whatever’s left over back to the grid. That excess energy doesn’t go to waste, it can earn money from what is called export tariffs. It’s the rate a supplier pays for that surplus, on top of whatever the business is already saving by using its own power.

Suppliers set this rate themselves, not the government. So the better supplier you choose the better you get paid.

Tip: Choosing the right export supplier is important if you are wanting a competitive rate for the energy you are putting back to the grid. Please note that the supplier you pay your electricity bills to can be different to the supplier you use to export the excess electricity generated from your solar panels.

Why rates vary

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) replaced the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) in 2020. FiT was a government-set payment scheme, paid for through everyone’s energy bills, whether they had solar or not. SEG works differently. There’s no government rate. It’s market-led, and suppliers compete on price, which means shopping around actually matters.

Here’s the good news. Under SEG, a business doesn’t have to buy its export tariff from the same supplier it imports from. Many businesses don’t realise this, and end up earning less than they could as a result.

Why does self-consumption matter more than export?

Solar works in a simple order. Panels generate electricity during the day. The business uses as much of that power as it can, straight away. That saves the full import price, since that unit never needs buying from the grid. Whatever’s left over gets exported to the grid, and that’s where the export tariff comes in.

Some businesses get this confused. They think the export tariff is the best way to earn income. In reality, you save far more by installing solar panels and generating your own electricity. The export tariff is just a bonus on top.

The same logic applies to battery storage too. Most businesses think of a battery as a way to store extra power for later export. In practice, it’s more useful for self-consumption. Solar panels generate most of their power around midday, but that’s not always when a business needs it most. A battery stores that surplus instead of sending it to the grid, so the business can draw on it later, in the evening or during a busy period, rather than paying to import electricity at that point.

Used well, a battery lets a business match its own solar generation to when it actually needs power. For sites with high energy use outside daylight hours, this can make a real difference to the overall return on a solar installation.

Get that order right, and the export tariff becomes a welcome bonus on top of the real savings. Because suppliers compete on export price rather than government fixing it, businesses that shop around have more choice than ever, and a genuine chance of landing a better rate.

What this looks like in practice

Numbers help make this real. Here’s an example of what that can look like for a business.

Take a small office or shop with a 15kW to 30kW solar system. That could generate 12,000 to 25,000kWh a year, with around half exported. At typical export rates, that’s roughly £900 to £3,000 a year in export income, plus further savings from the electricity used on site. Total benefit often lands between £3,000 and £6,000 a year.

Every site is different. Roof size, opening hours, and daytime power use will all change these numbers considerably. For a rough estimate specific to your own site, Purely Energy’s Commercial Solar Calculator provides an indicative figure in a few minutes.

What to check before making a switching decision

• Has your export meter point (MPAN) actually been registered? Suppliers are meant to set this up, but it’s worth confirming it’s done.
• Does your contract tie your export tariff to your import supplier? If so, you may not be free to switch even once a better export deal appears.
• How long is your contract fixed for? A longer deal offers certainty, but it could lock you out of better rates if the market improves.

If any of these raise a flag, it’s worth reviewing the contract properly before renewing it.

Conclusion

An export tariff is a commercial decision in its own right, and deserves the same care as the main supply contract. Who’s offering the rate? How long is it fixed for? What happens if things go wrong? And would self-consumption or storage actually deliver more value than the export payment itself?

Import and export rates are not the same thing, and it’s worth understanding the difference. Getting it right could save a business a meaningful amount each year.