In many cases existing solar panels and the battery work together. We assess your setup and let you know what’s possible, and we buy the power your panels make at a published rate, credited to your bill. The panels stay yours.
Ask about the buyback
Your tīrama battery agreement covers your electricity supply and the battery hardware. If you have solar, a second, separate agreement covers the buyback: a solar buyback agreement between you (the property owner) and tīrama.
The panels, and any financing for them, stay between you and your own installer and bank.
Once your panels are commissioned, every unit they produce is metered and sold to tīrama at the published buyback rate. For a homeowner, it is a credit on your monthly bill, separate from your power charges. A landlord is paid monthly. Your household keeps its standard tīrama rate for whatever it draws from the grid.
We assess your setup and let you know what’s possible with the battery.
Your panels are connected through the tīrama inverter that comes with your battery, and the existing inverter at the property is bypassed. Every unit the panels generate is metered through it, which is how we measure what to pay you. Using our inverter is part of the agreement, because it is the measurement path the buyback is settled from.
The old inverter stays with the property: it is left in place on the wall, disconnected, unless you ask for it to be removed. If you want it taken off the wall, be at the property while our electrician is there; otherwise it stays where it is, unconnected.
tīrama signs the solar buyback agreement with you. The buyback rate applies to every unit the panels generate, from day one.
Settled monthly, credited to your tīrama bill (if you have one) or paid to your nominated bank account (if you are a landlord without a tīrama account).
The buyback rate, settlement, term, and what happens when you move or leave are set out in the solar buyback agreement.
| When the panels generate | Buyback rate |
|---|---|
| The expensive hours, weekdays 7–11am and 5–9pm | 10c a unit |
| All other times, including weekends | 8c a unit |
| Settlement | Monthly: a credit on your tīrama bill, or paid to a landlord’s bank account |
Buyback rates exclude GST, as other retailers quote them. If you are GST-registered, we add GST.
Most of what panels make comes in the middle of the day. About a fifth of a year’s output falls in the expensive hours, most of it on weekday mornings. In winter the sun is down for the evening hours, and in summer little is generated after 5pm. Across a year, the two rates work out at about 8.4c a unit.
The full buyback agreement is published before sign-up opens.
The solar buyback agreement is with the panel owner. Normally there's a tīrama-served home under the panels, but a landlord can keep selling their solar to us between tenancies too if they choose.
No. Your power rate is the same whether or not you have panels. If you do, what we buy from your panels is credited on top.
You do. Panels are fixed to the property and stay with the title. If you sell the house, the panels go with the sale. The solar buyback agreement renegotiates with the new owner or terminates.
The buyback agreement ends and the panels remain yours. Our inverter is removed with the battery, and reconnecting your original inverter, or fitting a new one, is up to you as the panel owner. You can then sell what your panels make to your next retailer, at their buyback rate.
Email solar@tiramaenergy.co.nz with your address and your system size, and we'll assess your setup and let you know what's possible.