Clean Export Guarantee Rates Ireland 2026: Every Supplier Compared

Pinergy’s 25c/kWh rate is gone. It fell to 18.5c/kWh (ex VAT) on 1 August 2026, and the best standard Clean Export Guarantee rate in Ireland is now 19.5c/kWh, paid by both Electric Ireland and SSE Airtricity. On published headline figures, standard rates run from 15.89c/kWh (PrepayPower) to 19.5c/kWh, with SSE Airtricity offering a premium 32c/kWh in Year 1 to homeowners who install via an approved Activ8 partner installer. On a typical 4 kWp system exporting roughly 1,400 kWh per year, the gap between the worst and best standard rate is €51 a year — and €175 a year more again in Year 1 if you can access the SSE Activ8 premium tariff.

Every supplier rate on this page was re-checked against the supplier’s own live page on 25 August 2026. Below: the full comparison table, a worked income example, the €400/year tax disregard confirmed until end of 2028, and the smart meter requirement that became a practical necessity from January 2026.

What Is the Clean Export Guarantee?

The Clean Export Guarantee (CEG) is the scheme under which Irish electricity suppliers must pay homeowners for surplus electricity exported to the grid from solar panels and other microgeneration sources. It became available on 15 February 2022, when Article 21 of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) was transposed into Irish law, and it is regulated by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which set out the interim CEG framework in a decision published on 1 December 2021. It sits alongside the SEAI grant among Ireland’s microgeneration supports. Suppliers set their own rates — there is no government-mandated floor price — which is why rates vary across the market.

To receive CEG payments, your installer must submit an NC6 connection form to ESB Networks after installation. ESB Networks will then arrange a smart meter if you don’t already have one. From January 2026, the CRU tightened rules on “deemed” (estimated) export payments: only smart meter users receive payment based on actual reads. Without one, your export income is calculated from a standardised estimate that will almost certainly undercount what you actually generate.

CEG Rate Comparison Table — August 2026

Every rate below was read off the supplier’s own live page on 25 August 2026. Check supplier sites before switching — rates change with notice, and no third-party aggregator is more current than the supplier’s own page.

Sources, all read on 25 August 2026 on the supplier’s own site: pinergy.ie (18.5c ex VAT, its page confirming the 25c rate changed on 1 August 2026), electricireland.ie (19.5c), sseairtricity.com help centre (19.5c standard, four payments a year) and its Activ8 offer terms (12.5c Yr 1 / 7.5c Yr 2 premium on top of the standard rate, two-year term), bordgaisenergy.ie (18.5c), energia.ie (18.5c), flogas.ie (€0.185 ex VAT / €0.20 inc VAT at 9%), yunoenergy.ie (17.16c) and prepaypower.ie (15.89c inc VAT). Rates are subject to change and every supplier reserves the right to vary them; confirm with your supplier before switching.

Worked Example — How Much Does a 4 kWp System Earn?

A 4 kWp system on a south-facing roof in Ireland generates roughly 2,800–3,500 kWh per year, depending on location and roof angle. The working figure used throughout this page is 3,200 kWh/year, which is a mid-range result for a standard south-facing install — a well-sited roof at the higher yields PVGIS models for Ireland will beat it. If your household self-consumes approximately 50% of what the panels generate, the remaining 1,400–1,600 kWh is exported to the grid and earns CEG income.

Using a mid-point export figure of 1,400 kWh/year:

Assumes 1,400 kWh/year exported and rates remain constant. Actual export quantities depend on household consumption pattern, roof orientation, shading, and seasonal variation. The Activ8 10-year figure is not ten years at a premium rate: under SSE Airtricity’s own offer terms the premium runs for two years only, so it is €448 in Year 1 at 32c, €378 in Year 2 at 27c, then eight years at SSE’s standard 19.5c — €3,010 in total. Figures are rounded to the nearest euro.

The key takeaway, and it is a smaller one than it used to be: over 10 years the difference between the cheapest standard rate (15.89c) and the best (19.5c) is about €510 — roughly €51 a year. Before 1 August 2026 that spread was more than twice as wide, because Pinergy’s 25c rate sat well clear of the field. With every standard rate now bunched between 15.89c and 19.5c, the export rate is no longer a good reason on its own to pick one supplier over another. The Activ8 premium route is the one exception worth arithmetic: about €785 more than the cheapest standard rate over 10 years, and €280 more than the best — almost all of it earned in the first two years.

The €400/Year Tax Disregard — Extended to 2028

The first €400 per year of income earned from selling surplus electricity back to the grid is exempt from income tax, USC, and PRSI. This disregard was extended to the end of 2028 under Finance Act 2025 — see Revenue.ie for the current guidance (note: Revenue periodically reorganises these URLs; search revenue.ie for “microgeneration” if the link redirects). No Revenue declaration is required as long as your total CEG receipts remain below €400 in a given tax year.

In practice, at the rates above:

• At the best standard rate of 19.5c/kWh: €400 covers 2,051 kWh of exports before the disregard is used up.
• At 18.5c/kWh (Pinergy, Bord Gáis, Energia, Flogas): the €400 threshold covers 2,162 kWh of exports.
• At the SSE Activ8 Year 1 rate of 32c/kWh: just 1,250 kWh — this is the one tariff on which a typical 4 kWp household can realistically exceed the disregard.
• Most 4 kWp systems on standard self-consumption patterns export around 1,200–1,600 kWh/year, which means the majority of homeowners will stay under the €400 threshold and owe no tax on export income at all.

If your exports exceed €400 in a year — more likely with a larger system or very low daytime self-consumption — the excess above €400 is taxable and must be declared on your tax return as miscellaneous income (Case IV, Schedule D). It is not classified as rental income. For a full breakdown of who qualifies, how the per-person allowance works, and exactly how to declare any excess, see our guide to tax on solar panel income in Ireland.

The SSE Activ8 Premium Rate — Is It Worth It?

The SSE Airtricity premium CEG tariff (32c/kWh in Year 1, then 27c/kWh in Year 2) is not available to all solar homeowners. It is only accessible if you install through an Activ8-approved partner installer under the SSE Airtricity partnership scheme. If your chosen installer is not an Activ8 partner, you get the standard SSE rate of 19.5c instead.

The detail most comparisons miss is in SSE’s own offer terms: the premium is a two-year offer, not a permanent tariff. It is structured as a top-up on the standard rate — 12.5c/kWh in Year 1 and 7.5c/kWh in Year 2, added to SSE’s standard 19.5c. The terms state plainly that once the two-year term expires, the standard clean export tariff applies. So the headline 32c is real, but it is worth roughly €280 over a decade, not the €1,000-plus a straight-line ten-year projection at 27c would suggest.

The numbers: on a 4 kWp system exporting 1,400 kWh/year, the Activ8 Year 1 rate earns €448 against €273 on the best standard rate — a €175 advantage in Year 1. Year 2 at 27c earns €378, a €105 advantage. From Year 3 the two are identical, because you are on SSE’s standard 19.5c either way. Total premium over 10 years: about €280, all of it banked in the first two years.

Two things to weigh before choosing your installer on this basis alone:

1. Install cost difference. The premium is worth about €280 in total on a typical 4 kWp export volume. If choosing an Activ8 partner installer costs €500–€800 more than a competing SEAI-registered installer for the same system, the premium never recovers that difference — it is capped at two years. Always compare the net-of-grant installed cost first, and treat the export rate as the tie-breaker rather than the decision.
2. Rate changes are not guaranteed. The premium tariff conditions are set by SSE, not by CRU regulation, and SSE’s terms reserve the right to amend the value of the premium “at any time and without notice, including during the Term”. Pinergy’s cut from 25c to 18.5c this August is the live illustration of how quickly a headline export rate can move. Read the offer terms before committing.

How CEG Income Affects System Payback

Export income is one part of the solar payback calculation, and after the August 2026 rate cuts it is a smaller part than it was. The bigger saving, for most households, comes from the electricity you generate and use directly without exporting — because every kWh you self-consume avoids buying it from your supplier at around 28–35c/kWh, versus the 15.89–19.5c you now earn by exporting it. That ratio has widened: self-consumption is worth roughly double export income per kWh on standard rates.

On a 4 kWp system generating ~3,200 kWh/year with 50% self-consumption, at the best standard export rate of 19.5c:

• Self-consumed saving: 1,600 kWh × ~30c/kWh avoided import cost = €480/year
• Export income: 1,600 kWh × 19.5c/kWh = €312/year
• Total annual benefit: ~€792/year

The same sum on Pinergy’s old 25c rate came to €880 a year. The August cut costs a typical exporting household in the region of €60–€90 a year, which pushes payback out by a few months rather than changing the case for solar.

That gap is also why the export rate should not decide which supplier you sign with. For a typical solar home the import unit rate and standing charge are worth several times more per year than the difference between the best and worst CEG rates — our guide to the best electricity plan for solar owners works the whole-bill comparison through with real published tariffs.

On a net installed cost of around €6,700 (after the €1,800 SEAI grant — see the full breakdown on the solar panels cost Ireland guide), that gives a payback of roughly 8–9 years. Heavier daytime users (heat pump running on solar, EV charging during daylight) will self-consume more and pay back faster. Lower daytime users who export more see smaller savings per kWh at the CEG rate versus avoided import cost.

For grant eligibility context, see the SEAI solar grant guide — the €1,800 grant is the starting point for the payback calculation above.

Frequently Asked Questions