Solar and energy newsSolar news
Power prices, buy-back rates, network rules and policy. What changed,
and what it does to your power bill.
Latest solar and energy news
Solar Hub NZ is in liquidation, and the deposits went in first
Solar Hub NZ Limited was put into liquidation by its own shareholders on 13 October 2026. Customers who paid deposits of $6,000 to $13,140 from June say installs were cancelled within days and the phone went quiet. The founder was SolarZero's chief operating officer. Claims close on 11 November.
SolarZero is gone, but the 25-year contracts are not
About 15,000 households signed up to SolarZero. The company went into liquidation in November 2024 and its old directors are now being sued for $476 million.
Check your inverter model before 30 September
Orion has been running a six-month transition off the 2015 inverter standard, and it ends this week. Fronius, SolarEdge, Sungrow, GoodWe and six other brands have models on the list that goes quiet. It is a deadline for applications, not a recall.
The best buy-back rates are paid after dark, do you need a battery?
You've probably seen a 24c buy-back rate advertised. It's real. It's also paid at 7am and 6pm, when your roof is dark. We checked every retailer, and the rate that actually lands on your bill is the one nobody puts on the poster.
Auckland and Wellington won't promise you 10kW
On 11 May 2026 the grid made 10kW the default for solar export. Most lines companies gave you a flat number. Auckland and Wellington gave you a probability instead, and here is what that probability is worth to you, in dollars.
Your power is worth more used than sold even with the new rates.
New rules make the big retailers pay more for power you export at peak. The highest rate on a retailer's own page is 25c. You buy that same unit back for about 33c, so a stored kilowatt-hour is worth more used than sold, and the battery's case rests exactly where it always did.
Four parties, four solar subsidy promises, none of them law yet
Labour is promising a $3,000 kickstart. National is promising a loan. Neither is law, neither is money you can claim today, and both sit on a scheme Parliament has not passed. Here is what exists now, when the promises could land, and what waiting costs you.
Your power bill changes twice on 1 April 2027
Two things hit your power bill that morning, not one. Lines charges climb again, and the cap that held down low-user daily charges for twenty-three years is scrapped. The smallest homes feel it worst. And the awkward bit for us, since installers pay us: half of it makes solar worth less, not more.
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