Key Takeaways
- The Smart Export Guarantee obliges large suppliers to pay for exported solar; it does not oblige them to pay well, and rates run from under 2p to over 15p per kWh.
- At the time of writing, Outgoing Octopus pays around 12p per kWh fixed, and you do not need to buy your electricity from the same supplier for most tariffs.
- Self-consumption still beats exporting: electricity you avoid buying at roughly 25p is worth twice what the best export rate pays.
- SEG requires an MCS-certified installation and a smart meter; the certificate is the document the whole application stands on.
- Export income is a design input, not an afterthought: array size, battery capacity and tariff choice should be decided together.
Table of Contents
Every kilowatt-hour your solar panels generate and you don’t use goes somewhere: into the grid, for which a supplier must offer to pay you under the Smart Export Guarantee. The gap between the best and worst SEG rates is more than tenfold, and most Scottish solar owners are sitting on the wrong one because it came bundled with their electricity supplier by default.
The SEG replaced the old Feed-in Tariff in 2020, and it works differently in one crucial way: rates are set competitively by suppliers, not guaranteed by government. That turns export income into something you shop for and design around, which is exactly what this guide covers.
What the Smart Export Guarantee Is and How It Pays
The Smart Export Guarantee is the licensing obligation that makes electricity suppliers with 150,000 or more customers offer a tariff paying you for every kilowatt-hour your solar system exports. Your smart meter measures export in half-hour blocks, the supplier pays per unit, and the money arrives as credits or bank payments depending on the tariff.
Three structural points matter. First, only the export meter reading counts; the SEG does not care how much you generated, only what crossed the boundary. Second, your export tariff and your import supplier can be different companies for most fixed tariffs, so you are free to pair the cheapest import deal with the best export rate. Third, rates above the floor are entirely the supplier’s choice, which is why the spread is so wide and why checking is worth real money.
For a typical Scottish 4 kWp system exporting around 1,500 kWh a year, the difference between a 1.5p default tariff and a 12p competitive one is roughly £160 a year, every year, for filling in a form.
SEG Rates Compared: Where the Money Is in 2026
Rates move, so treat every number here as at the time of writing and check before you sign. The market currently shapes up in three tiers:
- Competitive fixed tariffs. Outgoing Octopus pays around 12p per kWh fixed. Several rivals cluster between 10p and 15p, with the best rates sometimes reserved for customers who also import from the same supplier.
- Mid-market. A broad band of suppliers pay 4p to 8p, often to customers who never asked.
- The floor-huggers. Legacy default SEG tariffs still pay 1p to 3p. If you inherited your export rate when your installer registered the system, this is worth checking today.
Agile export tariffs price each half hour against the wholesale market and can beat fixed rates for households with batteries that can time their exports, at the cost of predictability. For most owners, a strong fixed rate is the sensible default and the agile question comes later, once real export data exists.
If you are still at the planning stage, export income belongs in the payback maths from the start; our solar panel cost guide for Scotland shows how it feeds the overall numbers.
Get a payback calculation for your roof that uses real current export rates, not last year’s assumptions.
“After having several companies provide quotes for solar panels, Aventus Eco was by far the best. Their team was professional, transparent, and most importantly, there was no high-pressure sales pitch at all.”
Kimberly Sloof, ★★★★★ Google Review
There is a lot of misinformation out there about heat pumps. Sean took the time to explain everything, answered every question, and the install was spot on. I could not be happier with the result.
Export or Use It Yourself: The Arithmetic That Decides
Here is the number that should sit behind every solar decision in Scotland: electricity you buy costs roughly 25p per kWh, and electricity you export earns 12p at best. Every kilowatt-hour you shift from export to self-use is therefore worth about double.
That is why a battery changes the economics so sharply. Without storage, a typical household self-consumes 35 to 40 percent of its generation and exports the rest at the lower rate. With a correctly sized battery, self-consumption pushes past 70 to 80 percent, and what still exports does so only after the house and the battery are full. The battery is not an alternative to the SEG; it is the thing that makes sure the SEG only gets the electricity you genuinely could not use.
The exception worth knowing: on the strongest export rates, deliberately exporting from a full battery during evening peak windows can out-earn holding the charge. That is a tariff-specific game, and our solar battery storage guide covers when it is worth playing.
Pairing Tariffs: Flux, EV Rates and the Whole-House Picture
The SEG stops being a standalone decision the moment your household has a battery or an EV, because the import side of the bill is where the bigger money moves.
Octopus Flux, as one example, wraps import and export into one tariff shaped for solar-plus-battery homes: cheap import and modest export overnight, premium export in the evening peak, so the battery charges cheap, the house runs off sunshine, and the surplus sells dear. EV households often do better pairing an intelligent overnight EV rate with a strong fixed export tariff instead. Which combination wins depends on your driving, your battery size and your generation profile, and it changes the effective value of your solar by hundreds of pounds a year.
This is why we treat tariff strategy as part of the installation, not homework left on the doorstep. The system gets commissioned, the SEG application goes in, and the tariff recommendation reflects how your household actually uses power.
Get a tariff pairing recommendation built from your usage, your battery and your export profile.
“Aventus Eco installed solar panels and a battery and all went like clockwork. We’re now running virtually all day on a few pounds of off-peak electricity from Octopus, with the rest coming from solar feeding into the battery. Very pleased with the result and the thorough job done by Aventus Eco.”
Paul Prior, ★★★★★ Google Review
From start to finish the work was carried out with real attention to detail and care. You can tell it matters to them that the system performs at its best, not just that it is in.
Applying for the SEG: The Paperwork, Plainly
The application itself is straightforward when the installation was done properly, because everything the supplier asks for exists in your handover pack:
1. MCS certificate. Non-negotiable. SEG tariffs require the system to be MCS certified, which is why the certificate matters more than any brochure claim an installer makes. 2. A smart meter capable of half-hourly export readings. Almost all SMETS2 meters qualify; your supplier fits one free if you are still on an older meter. 3. Proof of ownership and the DNO notification confirming the system is registered with the network operator, again standard handover documents from a compliant install.
Choose the export tariff, submit the documents, and payments typically start from the next billing cycle after approval. Ten minutes of admin, permanently recurring income. Every system we install is MCS registered and handed over with the SEG pack ready to submit, which is part of what MCS certification is actually for.
Designing for Export from Day One
Export income should influence the system design itself, in three specific ways.
Array size first: standard grid permission (G98) covers systems up to 3.68 kW of inverter output per phase, and anything larger needs G99 approval from the network operator before installation. A good installer handles that application as routine; a bad one sizes the system down to dodge the paperwork and costs you a decade of lost generation. Second, inverter clipping: a slightly oversized panel array feeding a right-sized inverter usually wins in dull Scottish weather, but the clipping maths should be shown, not asserted. Third, orientation: east-west arrays spread generation across the day, which raises self-consumption and suits battery charging even though the headline peak looks smaller.
None of this is exotic. It is what design looks like when generation, storage, usage and export income are treated as one system, which is how we build solar PV across Scotland. Whether the whole package stacks up for your roof is the question the survey answers, and the broader case is set out in our guide to whether solar panels are worth it in Scotland.
Have your array, battery and export income designed as one system, sized from your actual roof and usage.
“There was no hard sell, just lots of advice from people who clearly care about what they do. They took the time to get the design right for my home, properly working out our power use and heat loss and sizing everything accordingly. Aventus suggested right sizing the solar panels and adding battery storage, and it’s working flawlessly.”
Duncan Livingstone, ★★★★★ Google Review
From the first phone call I felt in good hands. Everything was explained, the work was finished ahead of schedule, and our bills have come down since.
Get Your Export Income Designed In
One survey covers generation, battery sizing, tariff pairing and the SEG paperwork for your home.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Smart Export Guarantee?
The SEG is the UK licensing requirement that makes larger electricity suppliers pay solar owners for electricity exported to the grid. Rates are set by each supplier rather than by government, measured through your smart meter in half-hourly blocks.
How much do you get paid for exporting solar in Scotland?
At the time of writing, competitive fixed tariffs pay 10p to 15p per kWh, with Outgoing Octopus around 12p, while default tariffs can pay under 2p. A typical 4 kWp Scottish system exporting 1,500 kWh a year earns roughly £180 a year at 12p.
Do I need an MCS certificate for SEG?
Yes. Suppliers require MCS certification of the installation before approving a SEG application. It is the single document the scheme stands on, and it comes from using an MCS-certified installer.
Which SEG tariff pays the most?
It changes, which is the honest answer. Fixed competitive tariffs around 12p to 15p lead the market at the time of writing, with agile tariffs sometimes beating them for battery households that can time exports. Check rates at the point of application rather than relying on any article, including this one.
Do I need a smart meter for SEG?
Yes, one capable of half-hourly export readings, which modern SMETS2 meters are. Your electricity supplier installs one free of charge if your current meter is older.
Is it better to store solar power or export it?
Store it, in almost every Scottish case. Avoiding a 25p import beats earning a 12p export, which is why batteries push self-consumption past 70 to 80 percent before anything is sold. The refinement, exporting deliberately during premium evening windows, only makes sense on specific tariffs with a battery in place.
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