Your Solar Export Rate May Have Quietly Dropped This Year

If you haven’t checked your Smart Export Guarantee rate since last year, there’s a decent chance it’s paying less than you think. Several suppliers cut export tariffs in 2026, and unlike a price cap change, nobody sends you a letter about it.

What’s actually changed

Octopus’s Outgoing Octopus tariff dropped from 15p to 12p per kWh on 1 March 2026. That’s the first change to that particular rate since 2022, when wholesale prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Intelligent Octopus Flux, the time-of-use tariff that can pay up to 30p per kWh at peak, closed to new customers the same month, so it’s no longer an option if you haven’t already signed up.

British Gas restructured its own export tariff from 6 July 2026. Coverage of that change has focused on a drop from 15.1p to 8p per kWh, but as far as we can tell that applies specifically to installations over 15kW, which is mostly commercial solar rather than a household rooftop system. Worth confirming with British Gas directly what your own system size qualifies for rather than assuming the headline figure applies to a typical home install.

Why suppliers are cutting rates

SEG isn’t a fixed government rate the way the old Feed-in Tariff was. Every export tariff a supplier offers is priced against wholesale electricity, and wholesale costs have been broadly flat to falling since 2024. A supplier trimming its export rate when the market softens is built into how SEG works, which is exactly why a rate that held steady for three straight years, like Outgoing Octopus did, was never guaranteed to stay that way.

What hasn’t changed

Every SEG tariff still has to pay above zero, whatever the wholesale price is doing. Ofgem’s floor means your rate can be cut, sometimes sharply, but you can’t be charged for exporting. That matters more than it used to, because wholesale prices are increasingly dipping below zero on sunny, windy days. See our negative electricity prices explainer for why that’s happening and what it means for dynamic export tariffs specifically.

What to actually check

Look up your current export rate and compare it against what else is on the market rather than assuming your supplier’s number is still competitive. A few things worth knowing before you switch:

• The best rates, often 17.5p to 25p, usually require your supplier to also be your electricity importer, and sometimes require them to have installed your system too.
• You don’t have to use the same supplier for exports and imports. Export-only switches are allowed and often the quickest way to a better rate.
• Rates on most SEG tariffs are variable, so this isn’t a one-off check. Our Smart Export Guarantee guide covers how the different tariff types compare and what a smart export meter needs to support.

Bottom line

A rate cut doesn’t undo the case for solar, most of the value still comes from using your own generation rather than exporting it. But a rate that dropped without you noticing quietly shrinks the income you were counting on when you first ran the numbers. Get matched with vetted installers if you’re sizing up a new system, and re-shop your export tariff if you already have one.

Frequently asked questions