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Key takeaways
- New Zealand has no national solar subsidy. Unlike Australia (STCs) or many EU countries, Kiwi households pay the full installed cost upfront. A 4 to 6 kWp system costs $10,000 to $15,000 installed in 2026.
- Despite no subsidy, payback in 2026 runs 7 to 10 years in most regions, because retail electricity at $0.28 to $0.36 per kWh is high enough on its own to drive the maths.
- The lever that matters most is self-consumption rate. A 30 percent self-consumption household earns roughly half what a 70 percent self-consumption household does on the same array. A timer, a hot-water cylinder and an EV charger together can lift this rate by 30 to 40 points.
- Buy-back rates span 8 to 16 c/kWh across NZ retailers in 2026. For an Auckland household exporting 4,000 kWh per year, the gap between the worst and the best is $320 of annual income: switching plans matters more than adding panels.
- The only meaningful public support for solar in NZ comes from council low-interest loan schemes in Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch and a handful of others, and not from any central-government grant programme.
Why "is there a government subsidy for solar power NZ?" is the wrong question
Most NZ solar articles open by apologising: no national rebate, no feed-in tariff, no Australian-style STC scheme. That misses the point. Kiwi solar still pays back fast in 2026 because high retail electricity prices do the heavy lifting that a subsidy would do elsewhere.
New Zealand
NZD 13,000
installed cost, 6.6 kWp, no rebate
Offsets electricity at 32 to 36 c/kWh. Payback: 7 to 10 years.
Australia
AUD 5,500
installed cost, 6.6 kWp, after STC rebate
Offsets electricity at 25 to 30 c/kWh. Payback: 5 to 8 years.
On paper, NZ solar costs twice as much. In practice, payback periods land in the same range, because the higher retail price absorbs the missing subsidy. That is the headline no listicle puts in its first paragraph.
Solar yield by region in New Zealand
Where you live in New Zealand changes the maths by roughly 30 percent. The nine main centres below cover the country's solar-relevant population. The "specific yield" column is the headline metric: how many kilowatt-hours each kilowatt of panel produces in a typical year, after standard derating for orientation, shading and inverter losses. The annual output column assumes a clean 5 kWp residential array on a north-facing roof at 25 to 30 degrees pitch.
Tasman and Nelson
Nelson
Specific yield
1,380 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 6,900 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4.6 h/day
Best for
The single best solar region in New Zealand
Selectra note
Nelson and Marlborough see the highest annual yields of any populated area, narrowly ahead of Bay of Plenty.
Bay of Plenty
Tauranga
Specific yield
1,320 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 6,600 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4.5 h/day
Best for
Best yield-per-panel in the North Island
Selectra note
Bay of Plenty consistently records the highest annual sunshine hours of any major NZ urban area.
Northland and Auckland
Auckland
Specific yield
1,300 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 6,500 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4.4 h/day
Best for
High summer self-consumption; mid-range buy-back impact
Selectra note
The longest summer days and the lowest winter dip on the country. Top region for 4 to 6 kWp residential systems.
Canterbury
Christchurch
Specific yield
1,250 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 6,250 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4.2 h/day
Best for
Households with electric heating offsetting winter demand
Selectra note
Lower winter angle hurts December to February load less than expected because long summer days compensate.
Central Otago
Queenstown
Specific yield
1,200 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 6,000 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4.1 h/day
Best for
Cold-climate homes with high winter consumption
Selectra note
Cold-but-clear winter days produce well above sea-level yields per sunshine hour, partially offsetting shorter days.
Waikato
Hamilton
Specific yield
1,180 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 5,900 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 4 h/day
Best for
Dairy and rural households with daytime loads
Selectra note
Lower than the coast but solid year-round. Higher fog incidence reduces winter generation.
Wellington and Lower North Island
Wellington
Specific yield
1,150 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 5,750 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 3.9 h/day
Best for
Households pairing solar with a battery to ride out the southerly
Selectra note
Wind, not cloud, is the limiting factor on the Wellington roofs that need stronger mounting.
Otago coast
Dunedin
Specific yield
1,080 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 5,400 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 3.7 h/day
Best for
North-tilted roofs with maximised summer offset
Selectra note
The shortest winter days in any NZ main centre, but still viable thanks to long summer evenings and cool panel temperatures.
Southland
Invercargill
Specific yield
1,050 kWh/kWp/year
- 5 kWp output
- 5,250 kWh/yr
- Sun hours
- 3.6 h/day
Best for
Year-round low-mileage offset; works best with battery storage
Selectra note
Lowest yields in the country, yet still 25 percent above the UK average. Payback extends to ~12 to 14 years without battery.
Specific yield figures derive from NIWA SolarView data and PVGIS modelling, May 2026. Real-world output varies with roof orientation, tilt, shading, soiling and panel age (typical degradation ~0.5 percent per year).
The three levers that decide your solar payback
Every dollar your rooftop solar saves comes from one of three sources. Each one responds to a different variable. Treat them separately.
Self-consumption
Use your own solar before it touches the grid
~20 c/kWh
value gap between using vs exporting
Every kWh you use yourself saves 28 to 36 c. Every kWh exported only earns 8 to 16 c.
Lift it with: hot-water timer, EV charger on daylight schedule, pool pump relay.
Buy-back rate
Get paid more for what you do export
+$280/yr
swing between best and worst retailer
Buy-back rates run from 8 c (Mercury, Genesis) to 16 c (Ecotricity). Same panels, same exports, very different revenue.
Lift it with: a 10-day plan switch. No paperwork beyond the new sign-up.
Battery arbitrage
Store midday solar, use it at peak hours
~$900/yr
value captured by a 10 kWh battery
Costs $9k to $15k for 10 to 13 kWh. Battery-only payback: 9 to 14 years, longer than the 10-year warranty.
Best for: resilience (Wellington wind, ageing grids), not pure economics.
In plain numbers: on a 5 kWp Auckland system, lifting self-consumption from 30% to 60% adds $380 per year. Over 25 years, that single behaviour change is worth around $9,500, with no extra hardware.
What NZ actually offers in 2026 (the short answer)
There is no national rebate. But three smaller mechanisms get mixed up online. Here is what each one really does:
Council loan schemes
Borrow up to $30,000 against your rates bill at single-digit interest, repaid over 9 to 15 years.
Available in Auckland (Retrofit Your Home), Tauranga, Christchurch (Sustainable Homes) and a few others. Doesn't cut the cost. Cuts the financing pain enough to make year-1 cash-flow positive.
Warmer Kiwi Homes (EECA)
Funds up to 80% of insulation and approved heat pumps for low-income owner-occupiers.
Often confused with solar support. It is not. The scheme covers insulation and heating, never PV panels.
"GST is waived on solar"
It isn't. 15% GST applies to the full installed cost, same as any home improvement.
Only GST-registered businesses or rental owners using the panels for income can reclaim it. Standard households pay the full GST-inclusive quote.
Solar buy-back rates from NZ retailers in 2026
The single most consequential decision after installing solar is which retailer buys your exports. The 2026 range across the major NZ retailers is shown below. Rates assume a single-rate buy-back plan; some retailers (Octopus) offer dynamic time-of-export pricing that can pay more during summer peak, which is not captured in the headline number.
| Retailer | Buy-back rate (c/kWh) | Reference plan | Selectra note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecotricity | 16.0 c/kWh | Solar Plus | Highest rate in NZ; Toitū CarbonZero certified retailer. |
| Electric Kiwi | 12.5 c/kWh | MoveMaster | Strong all-rounder, free hour bonus on top. |
| Octopus Energy | 12.5 c/kWh | OctopusPeaker | Time-of-use plan that rewards day exports. |
| Contact Energy | 12.5 c/kWh | Good Nights | Pairs well with EV households charging overnight. |
| Meridian Energy | 12.5 c/kWh | EV Plan | Day rate plus discounted overnight rate. |
| Toast Electric | 11.0 c/kWh | Toast Electricity | No-frills flat rate. |
| Mercury Energy | 8.5 c/kWh | Off Peak | Below the 2026 NZ market average. |
| Genesis Energy | 8.5 c/kWh | Energy EV | Below average buy-back; offset by overnight EV rate. |
Rates verified May 2026 from published rate cards. Buy-back rates can change with 30 days' notice; always confirm before signing up. GST included.
Three mistakes in most "is solar worth it in NZ?" articles
The standard online article makes three avoidable errors. Each one understates the real gap between households.
Quoting a single national "payback in 8 years" figure
National averages are useless for solar. The regional yield gap alone swings revenue by 30% before retailer or self-consumption choices enter the maths.
Best case
Bay of Plenty, $0.36/kWh, 60% self-use → payback in 5 to 6 years
Worst case
Southland, $0.30/kWh, 30% self-use → payback in 13 years
Ignoring the self-consumption variable
Most installer quotes assume a "typical" 30 to 40% self-consumption. That's a starting point, not a target.
Scheduling loads can lift it to 60 to 70% with no battery. Doubling self-consumption is more cost-effective than adding 2 kWp of panels.
Treating the buy-back rate as fixed
Installer quotes pin a single rate (often 12.5 c/kWh). In reality, you control it: switching retailers takes 10 working days and is free.
The maths: moving from 8.5 c to 16 c on 3,000 kWh of exports = $225 per year, every year = over $5,000 across a 25-year system life. One admin decision.
The 4-factor framework for deciding on solar
Skip the brochures. Answer these four questions, in order, before requesting a single quote:
What is your current daytime consumption pattern?
Households empty all day (everyone at work, no smart appliances) self-consume 15 to 25 percent of generation. Households with someone at home, an EV, a pool or a hot-water cylinder on timer self-consume 50 to 70 percent. The difference defines whether your solar pays back in 7 years or 13.
Empty home → smaller array. Day load → larger array.
Which region (and roof orientation) are you in?
Specific yield ranges from 1,050 kWh/kWp (Southland) to 1,380 kWh/kWp (Nelson and Bay of Plenty). North-facing roofs at 25 to 35 degrees of pitch are optimal; east or west costs 10 to 15 percent of output; south-facing is non-viable.
High-yield region + north roof → solar wins.
Are you on the best retailer for solar?
Buy-back rates spread from 8 to 16 c/kWh. The retailer with the best EV plan is not always the one with the best buy-back, and vice-versa. Run a two-rate analysis for your situation before signing the panels.
Solar households → optimise buy-back first.
Is your area on a council loan scheme?
If you are in Auckland, Tauranga, Christchurch or one of the participating councils, a voluntary targeted rates loan can finance the system at 4 to 7 percent over 10 to 15 years, repaid through your rates bill. That can flip the system from year-5 cash-flow positive to year-1.
Eligible area → use the loan; otherwise self-fund.
Why retailers love solar households (but rarely pay them fairly)
A 5 kWp rooftop array exports 3,000 to 4,000 kWh/year after self-consumption. Retailers buy that cheap and resell it at the retail rate. Three things they don't advertise:
Wholesale spread
A 12 c/kWh buy-back looks generous, but is thin
Midday spot prices average 9 to 14 c/kWh across the year, but spike to 30 to 60 c/kWh in dry hydro periods (June to September). The retailer pockets that arbitrage.
Customer retention
Solar customers are 35% stickier than average
Paperwork, ICP re-registration and a new export contract deter switching, so retailers can underpay you and lose fewer customers because of it.
The marketing
"Climate-friendly" plans are still about margin
Premium retailers (Ecotricity, Octopus) compete by sharing more of the margin with you. That's the only real reason their buy-back rates are higher.
Practical move: a solar household is a high-value customer. Before you switch, call your current retailer and ask them to match a competitor's buy-back rate. Many will. None of them will advertise that they will.
Your 5-step action plan this week
Before requesting a single quote, run through these in order. Each one moves the maths more than the next quote will.
Pull 12 months of your electricity data
Download from your retailer's portal. Check the day-vs-night ratio. If 60%+ is daytime, solar maths are immediate. If 80% is overnight, change priorities (heat pump, EV window, then solar).
Model your roof on NIWA SolarView
Free public dataset. Gives the real specific yield for your orientation, tilt and shading. Installer quotes use generic regional averages.
Get 3 quotes — 1 national + 2 local
Ask each installer to model two scenarios: 30% baseline and 60% optimised self-consumption. The gap between them is what your habits are worth.
Switch retailer BEFORE you install
On Mercury or Genesis (under 10 c/kWh)? Switch first. Same admin, but installing then switching loses months of revenue.
Check your council loan scheme
Auckland, Tauranga, Hutt City, Nelson, Christchurch and others run voluntary targeted rates schemes. Single-digit interest over 10 to 15 years usually flips cash-flow positive from year 1.
Not sure your retailer is the most rewarding for solar households?
Kiwi households can save up to $400 per year by switching to the right retailer for their usage. Compare every NZ electricity retailer in under a minute.
The Selectra expert answers your questions
No. New Zealand has no national rebate, feed-in tariff or grant for residential solar power, unlike Australia (STCs) or many EU countries. The only public support comes from local-council low-interest loan schemes (Auckland Retrofit Your Home, Tauranga, Christchurch Sustainable Homes and others), which finance the system but do not reduce its cost. The Warmer Kiwi Homes programme funds insulation and heat pumps, not solar panels. GST applies in full to all residential installs.
A typical 4 to 6 kWp rooftop system costs $10,000 to $15,000 installed in 2026, including inverter, racking, grid-tie certification and Worksafe compliance. A 6.6 kWp system (the most popular residential size) sits at around $13,000. Battery storage adds $9,000 to $15,000 for 10 to 13 kWh of usable capacity. Cost varies by region (higher in Wellington and Christchurch for wind-rated mounting), roof complexity and panel brand.
Without battery, payback runs 7 to 10 years in most NZ regions, assuming a 50 percent self-consumption rate, a 12.5 c/kWh buy-back rate and current retail electricity prices. Bay of Plenty and Nelson households can hit payback in 6 years; Southland or Otago coastal households take 12 years. With battery storage, payback typically extends to 11 to 15 years because the battery alone has a payback of 9 to 14 years even on optimal use patterns.
Ecotricity pays 16 c/kWh on its Solar Plus plan, the highest residential buy-back rate in NZ in 2026 and the only Toitū CarbonZero-certified retailer. Electric Kiwi, Octopus Energy, Contact Energy and Meridian Energy all pay 12.5 c/kWh. Mercury Energy and Genesis Energy pay 8.5 c/kWh, well below the market average. See our full buy-back rate comparison for current rates.
For most owner-occupied Kiwi households, yes. The absence of a subsidy is offset by retail electricity prices of $0.28 to $0.36 per kWh, among the highest in the OECD outside Europe. A 5 kWp system in a sunny region offsets $1,500 to $2,000 of annual electricity bills if well-used (50 percent self-consumption). Over a 25-year system life, that is $40,000 to $50,000 of nominal value against an installed cost of $13,000, even before factoring in retail-price inflation. The maths favours solar in 2026; rental properties and shaded roofs are the main cases where it doesn't.
For most NZ households, a 4 to 6 kWp array (10 to 16 panels) hits the optimal trade-off between cost and yield. Larger systems push more exports at a low buy-back rate; smaller systems leave money on the table during summer. The right size is the smallest array that covers your daytime consumption when fully self-consumed, plus a 30 percent buffer for cloudy days. EV households or homes with a pool can justify 6 to 8 kWp; single-occupant flats often only need 3 kWp.
Yes. Every NZ rooftop solar installation must be certified by the local distribution network (Vector, Wellington Electricity, Aurora, Orion and others) before it can export. The certification (typically called an "ICP connection consent" or "embedded generation application") is handled by the installer and costs $200 to $400. Once approved, exports flow automatically and the retailer credits the buy-back rate on the next bill. There is no national export cap in 2026; some distribution networks limit export capacity to 5 to 10 kW per residential connection.
Yes, but at 10 to 25 percent of peak output. Modern monocrystalline panels produce useful power under diffuse light, including overcast Wellington or Auckland winter days. Heavy rain actually improves output briefly by cleaning soiled panels. Snow on the panels (Queenstown, Wanaka, Mt Hutt) blocks output completely until it slides off; tilt of 25 degrees or steeper helps. Average annual output factors in all of these conditions; the per-day variance is high but the annual figure is highly reliable year-on-year.
