You can put a big solar system on your roof in Cairns. What you cannot always do is send all of its power back to the grid. In the Ergon network area that covers Far North Queensland, most homes are limited in how much solar they can export, and that limit shapes how a smart system gets designed.
We are G-Solar & Electrical, based at 32 Magazine Street in Stratford. We design and install solar across Cairns, Port Douglas, the northern beaches and the Atherton Tablelands, so we work inside Ergon’s connection rules every single week.
Quick Answer
- Most single-phase homes in the Ergon area can export up to 5 kVA of solar
- Three-phase homes can usually export more, typically 5 kVA per phase
- An export limit does NOT cap what your panels can make, only what you can send out
- You can install more panels than your export limit and use the extra power yourself
- With the feed-in tariff at about 6 cents, self-use beats exporting anyway
- Batteries, hot water timers and smart appliance habits soak up the capped power
What Is an Export Limit?
When your solar makes more power than your home is using, the spare power flows out to the grid and you get paid the feed-in tariff for it. An export limit is a cap on that outgoing flow. Your inverter is set up to hold exports at or below the cap, no matter how much your panels are producing.
Why does the cap exist? The local grid was built to deliver power to homes, not to collect it from thousands of rooftops at once. On a sunny FNQ day with everyone exporting at full tilt, voltage on the street can rise past safe limits. Export caps keep the network stable.
The key point most people miss: the limit applies to exports only. Your panels can still generate at full power for your own use. If your array is making 8 kW and your house is using 4 kW, you use the 4, export up to the cap, and the inverter trims the small remainder.
The Rules in the Ergon Area
Cairns and most of regional Queensland sit on the Ergon network. For a standard home connection:
| Connection | Typical export allowance |
|---|---|
| Single phase | Up to 5 kVA exported |
| Three phase | Up to 5 kVA per phase |
| Larger or unusual systems | Case-by-case network approval |
Your installer handles the paperwork. Every grid-connected system in the Ergon area needs a network connection approval before it is switched on, and the approved export setting is programmed into your inverter as part of the install. This is normal, built into our process, and nothing you need to arrange yourself.
If a quote from any company does not mention connection approval or export settings, that is a red flag about how carefully they work.
Why Export Limits Matter Less Than They Used To
Here is the honest maths in 2026. The regional Queensland feed-in tariff dropped to 6.006 cents per kilowatt hour from 1 July 2026. Meanwhile the power you buy from the grid costs several times that.
That gap changes everything. Every kilowatt hour you use yourself is worth roughly four to five times more than one you export. So an export cap barely dents the value of a well-designed system, because the real money was never in exporting. It is in replacing the power you would have bought. We break down the full new-tariff picture in our QLD feed-in tariff guide and show what it means for your habits in how to use more of your own solar.
In other words: the export limit mostly caps the part of solar that pays worst.
Should You Still Install More Than 5 kW? Usually Yes
It sounds odd to install 8, 10 or 13 kW of panels when you can only export 5 kVA. But oversizing is often exactly the right call in Cairns:
- Mornings, afternoons and the wet season. Your array rarely runs at its sticker rating. A bigger array makes more power in early morning, late afternoon and under cloud, when a small array would be making very little. Our post on solar in the wet season shows how much cloud really costs.
- Big daytime loads. Air conditioning is the classic FNQ example. A larger array can run your aircon straight from the roof for more hours of the day.
- A battery changes the maths completely. Power that cannot be exported can be stored instead. With the federal battery rebate taking roughly 30 percent off storage, capped homes are exactly the homes where a battery earns its keep fastest. Start with our battery size guide and see what we install in our battery comparison.
- EVs are coming either way. An electric car is a huge movable load that can absorb midday solar. Our guide to charging an EV with solar runs the numbers.
The one mistake to avoid is oversizing with no plan for the extra power. Panels that spend every day being trimmed by the inverter, with no battery, no daytime loads and no timers, are money on the roof doing nothing. Design comes first.
How We Design Around the Cap
When we quote a Cairns home, the export limit is one of the first things we design against:
- Check your connection. Single or three phase, and what the network will approve at your address.
- Map your daytime usage. Aircon, pool pump, hot water, home office. The more you use while the sun is up, the bigger the array that makes sense.
- Size the array for self-use, not export. Our panel count guide explains the sizing logic.
- Pick an inverter that manages exports cleanly. The inverters we install handle export limiting as standard, and our inverter comparison covers the brands.
- Plan the battery path. Even if storage comes later, choosing battery-ready hardware now keeps the door open cheaply. Our guide to adding a battery to an existing system shows how retrofits work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the solar export limit in Queensland?
On the Ergon network that covers regional Queensland including Cairns, a standard single-phase home can typically export up to 5 kVA. Three-phase homes can usually export up to 5 kVA per phase. Your installer confirms the exact allowance for your address during connection approval.
Does the export limit cap how much solar I can install?
No. It caps what you send to the grid, not what you generate or use. Homes regularly install arrays well above their export limit and put the extra power to work through daytime usage and batteries.
What happens to solar power I cannot export?
Your inverter automatically trims generation to stay within the cap once your home’s own usage is covered. With a battery, that spare power charges the battery instead of being trimmed.
Is an export-limited system still worth it?
Yes, and often more than ever. Exported power earns about 6 cents while self-used power saves several times that, so a system designed around self-use loses very little to the cap. Our guide on whether solar is worth it in Queensland has the full payback maths.
Can I get my export limit increased?
Sometimes, especially on three-phase connections or with newer flexible connection arrangements. It is assessed per address by the network. Ask us to check what your connection can support before assuming the standard cap.
Do export limits apply to batteries too?
Battery discharge to the grid counts as export, so it sits under the same connection rules. For most homes the battery’s job is powering the house at night, not exporting, so the cap rarely bites.
Get a System Designed for the Rules, Not Against Them
Export limits punish lazy system design and reward smart design. We size arrays, inverters and batteries around Ergon’s rules and your actual usage, so every panel earns its place. Call 07 4039 4914 or book a free consultation and we will check what your address can support.