Solar power in Tasmania, explained plainly.

Why Tasmania is its own case

Tasmania isn’t the mainland, and copy-pasted solar advice gets it wrong. Three things make us different:

• Less sun, but cooler panels. We sit in the lowest-rated solar zone (Zone 4), so an identical system earns a smaller rebate and generates a little less than in Queensland — but our cool climate keeps panels efficient, and the output is still very worthwhile.
• A hydro-powered grid. Tasmania’s electricity is almost entirely renewable hydro, so prices move with dam levels and the Basslink interconnector to Victoria. Your bill still includes generation, TasNetworks’ poles-and-wires, and Aurora Energy’s retail charges.
• Generous connection rules — with one local quirk. TasNetworks lets you run up to a 10kW inverter (exporting up to 10kW) on a single-phase connection, so most homes can fit around a 13kW system (≈13.3kW of panels on a 10kW inverter) — well past the old 6.6kW default. The Tassie catch: many older homes here are two-phase (rare on the mainland), and your solar usually sits on just one phase — so it pays to put it on the phase carrying your daytime load. More on phases →

Bottom line: solar stacks up well in Tasmania, and because self-consumed power is worth roughly 3–4× what you're paid to export, a 13kW system you grow into — with an EV, a battery or an all-electric home — usually pays off better than a small one you quickly outgrow.

Who's behind this guide: Solar Generation Tasmania is an SAA-accredited (Solar Accreditation Australia) installer. Its owners hold Master's degrees in research and science and bring over a decade in technology and solar businesses to every system they design.