This page is for Townsville homeowners who already have a solar system on the legacy 44 cent feed-in tariff. If you are looking to install new solar, the 44 cent tariff is no longer available. Head to our residential solar page instead.

If you are one of the thousands of Townsville homes still on this tariff, there are some important decisions coming up and we have been helping local customers work through them for years.

The 44 cent feed-in tariff was a Queensland Government incentive scheme that paid eligible solar owners 44 cents for every kilowatt hour of solar power they exported to the grid. It applied to systems installed during the early years of the solar boom, roughly 2008 to 2012, and was one of the most generous solar incentives ever offered in Australia.

The current standard feed-in tariff for new solar systems in Queensland is a fraction of that. So if you are still on the 44 cent rate, it is genuinely valuable and worth protecting for as long as it remains available.

The 44 cent feed-in tariff is scheduled to end on 30 June 2028. After that date, your system will roll onto the standard feed-in tariff rate like everyone else.

Before making any decision about what to do with your 44 cent system, the first step is finding out whether it is actually working properly. Many systems from this era are still generating but at a fraction of their original output, often without the owner realising.

Signs your 44 cent system may need attention include power bills that are higher than they used to be, solar credits on your electricity bill that are smaller than expected, an inverter that is showing an alarm light, or a system you have not had professionally inspected in several years.

In Townsville’s tropical coastal environment, systems from this era are particularly prone to water ingress in rooftop DC isolators, corroded connections, degraded panels and ageing inverters. Some of these issues are repairable. Others mean the system is approaching end of life.

We carry out inspections specifically for 44 cent tariff systems. We assess the condition of your panels, inverter, rooftop isolators and cabling, and give you a clear picture of what your system is doing and what condition it is in before you make any decisions.

This is the central question for every 44 cent tariff customer, and the answer is different for every household. The key constraint is that you cannot increase the size of your inverter or add more panels without losing the 44 cent tariff. If you upgrade to a larger system, you automatically move to the standard rate.

As a general guide, system size is the starting point for this decision.

This is not a decision to make based on a general rule alone. It depends on your household power usage, how much you are currently exporting, the condition of your existing system and what a replacement would cost. We have worked through this exact calculation with hundreds of Townsville customers over the past few years. A 30 minute conversation with us, combined with a look at your recent electricity bill, is usually enough to give you a clear answer.

When the 44 cent tariff ends, your system automatically moves to the standard feed-in tariff rate. That is a significant drop in the credit you receive for exported solar. Your power bill will change noticeably if you have been relying on those credits.

The good news is that by June 2028 you will have several options that make a lot of financial sense. Battery storage technology has improved dramatically and prices have come down significantly. The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program provides an upfront discount on eligible battery installations. A modern solar and battery system installed after 2028 will be able to offset far more of your consumption than your original system was ever designed to, including your evening air conditioning load.

If you are on a 44 cent system, we recommend thinking about your post-2028 plan now rather than waiting until the tariff expires. Knowing what you want to do means you can make a planned decision rather than a rushed one.