Which export tariff should I choose?

Export rates differ several-fold between suppliers, so this choice often matters more than squeezing another panel onto the roof. The decision tree is short: no battery → take the best flat rate you qualify for; battery → a time-of-use or spot-linked export product, because you can aim your exports at the well-paid hours.

Why the market is so uneven

Export payments are competitive offers, not regulated rates — in the UK the Smart Export Guarantee only obliges suppliers to pay something above zero, and actual offers range from token pennies to genuinely attractive fixed rates (often conditional on also importing from the same supplier). Ireland’s Clean Export Guarantee rates similarly vary by supplier. In Australia, feed-in tariffs have drifted low in solar-saturated states, while wholesale-linked products (Amber-style) occasionally pay evening spikes worth many times the flat rate.

The structural trap: midday, when unmanaged solar exports, is increasingly the worst-paid time everywhere, because everyone’s panels flood the grid at once. Flat export rates hide this; dynamic ones expose it — and reward anyone who can shift exports to the evening, which is precisely what a battery does.

What to do

1. List your candidates’ effective rates, including bundle conditions (import+export from one supplier often unlocks the best export price — compare the pair, not the export rate alone).
2. No battery: take the best flat/fixed export offer and focus on self-consumption instead — a shifted kWh beats even a good export rate (see the high-bill answer).
3. With a battery: model one real week — your export profile against each tariff’s price curve; spot-linked export usually wins if automation times the discharge, fixed wins if you want zero involvement.
4. Re-shop yearly — this corner of the market moves fast, and switching export supplier is usually low-friction paperwork.