Should you wait to put Solar on your roof? Checkout the election 2026 solar policy breakdown here
Should you wait to put Solar on your roof? Checkout the election 2026 solar policy breakdown here
IN THIS GUIDE
Top 5 things every homeowner needs to know
Side-by-side policy comparison
Renters and plug-in solar
Why waiting rarely pays off
Solar has become one of the defining issues of the 2026 election. Within weeks of each other, both major parties released policies promising to help more New Zealanders put solar on their roofs – National’s Home Energy Fund and Labour’s SolarSaver.
If you’ve been weighing up solar, that raises an obvious question: is it worth holding off until the dust settles?
This page explains exactly what each party is proposing, what’s still unknown, and what it means for homeowners, renters and businesses thinking about solar right now – without the political spin.
It is important to remember that National’s Home Energy Fund and Labour’s SolarSaver are election promises, not programmes you can apply for today. Before any households can apply, a party has to win the election, form a government, pass legislation and then build the scheme. This is a long and uncertain process, meaning that these options may not be available for quite some time.
People hear ‘solar subsidy’ and picture free panels. In reality, National is proposing low-interest, property-linked loans, and Labour is proposing similar loans plus a targeted grant for some households. For the majority of homeowners, both policies are about making it easier to finance solar, not handing over a free system.
For households that are good candidates for solar, delaying installation may mean continuing to pay full retail electricity rates rather than generating some of their own electricity.
New Zealanders right now have access to solar systems, battery storage, bank green loans, low-interest energy finance and buy-back arrangements, none of which depend on an election result.
The one thing both parties agree on is that more household solar strengthens resilience and cuts reliance on the grid. That case for solar is just as true today as it will be after the election.
Both parties are talking about solar policy for one reason: rising power prices have turned household electricity bills into an election issue.
According to MBIE’s latest survey of advertised retail tariffs (15 February 2026), New Zealand’s average residential electricity price has been climbing year on year – which is exactly what makes rooftop generation so attractive, and why both parties are competing for the solar vote.
| Location | Avg residential price (c/kWh, incl. GST) |
|---|---|
| New Zealand (national average) | 40.6 |
| Kerikeri (highest surveyed) | 49.7 |
| Christchurch | 36.6 |
| Wellington | 36.1 |
| Nelson | 37.2 |
| Auckland (North Shore) | 39.7 |
National’s Home Energy Fund is a finance scheme, not a grant. National announced it as part of its Electrify NZ agenda, a policy course focused on regulatory reform and wider energy regulations.
Its core idea is a low-interest, long-term loan repaid through your council rates, removing the big upfront cost of going solar. Key features as announced:
The catch that matters most for households: because the scheme runs through councils, ratepayers whose council doesn’t take part would miss out. The underlying rates-repaid loan model is one both parties credit to Rewiring Aotearoa and Local Government NZ.
Labour’s SolarSaver is broader, and in Labour’s policy it pairs finance with a targeted subsidy. Its main elements:
In short, SolarSaver aims to cut upfront costs and widen access to renters and lower-income families, a bigger, more complex programme than National’s. Labour’s SolarSaver is a $160 million package over four years, giving it the bigger price tag.
| Topic | National Home Energy Fund | Labour SolarSaver |
|---|---|---|
| Available today? | | |
| Law today? | | |
| Election promise? | | |
| Main support | Property-linked loan | Property-linked loan + additional support |
| Upfront cost assistance | Finance | Finance + potential grant |
| Batteries included | | |
| Council involvement | | |
| Renter support | Limited details so far | Plug-in solar proposal |
| Community batteries | Not central feature | |
| Consent simplification | | Not core policy |
| Funding mechanism | Government/council-backed finance | Government-backed finance and grants |
| Timing | Unknown | Labour says within 12 months of taking office |
| Qualifying rules | Partially known | Partially known |
| Eligibility | National Home Energy Fund | Labour SolarSaver |
|---|---|---|
| Homeowners | | |
| Property equity needed | Yes (property-secured loan) | Less emphasis (grant is not a loan) |
| Renters | Not addressed | Yes, via plug-in solar |
| Low/middle-income households | Not specified | Yes, means-tested $3,000 grant |
| Depends on your council opting in | | |
National and Labour have taken the headlines, but they aren’t the only parties with a view on household solar. The smaller parties often help decide what actually becomes law.
Here’s where the others sit, based on their public statements and policies as of July 2026 (positions can move during a campaign).
| ACT | Backs cutting red tape, not subsidies | ACT’s argument is that if solar genuinely pays for itself, households will invest without government help, so public money isn’t needed. It would rather remove regulatory hurdles (through resource-management and local-government reform) than fund loans or grants. |
| NZ FIRST | Deputy leader Shane Jones has said he’s interested in a solar loan scheme and backed the rates-repaid Ratepayer Assistance model, but is wary of a household subsidy and more open to helping businesses transition. | |
| GREENS | Pushing to expand the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme for solar loans and supercharge home insulation; proposed a solar subsidy in May 2026; have a member’s bill to split the gentailers; oppose LNG spending; publicly offered their votes to pass a solar scheme before the election. | |
| TOP | The Opportunities Party strongly supported a solar loan scheme, and via its ‘Abundant Energy’ plan would offer low-interest loans for household electrification, fund community energy, and build more wind and solar. |
Under MMP, New Zealand almost always ends up with a coalition government, so what actually becomes law depends less on who wins than on the deals struck between partners after election night.
In other words, you’re not waiting on a single result; you’re waiting on a government forming, partners reaching agreement, and the fine detail being written. That’s a lot of uncertainty to pin your power bill to.
It is important to remember that affordable finance for solar already exists for many households. New Zealand banks offer competitive green loans (many at low or zero interest), and there are several other routes to install with little money down.
| Support available now | What it does | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Low or 0% interest finance for solar and batteries, typically up to $80,000 | Homeowners with enough equity | |
| Council targeted-rates loans | Finance repaid through your rates, where a council already offers one | Ratepayers in participating council areas |
| Interest-free finance (Qcard) | Spreads the cost over interest-free instalments through Qcard, with no mortgage or equity needed (a minimum spend and annual account fee apply) | Homeowners wanting a simple, no-upfront option without borrowing against their home |
Most Kiwi homeowners fund solar with a green home loan, a low or zero-interest top-up designed specifically for energy upgrades, with nothing to pay upfront. Here’s how the main banks compare and what each lets you borrow.
| Lender/Option | What You Can Borrow | Key Terms |
|---|---|---|
| ANZ Good Energy Home Loan | Up to $80,000 | Fixed rate for 3 years |
| ASB Better Homes Top Up | Up to $80,000 | Fixed for 3 years; minimum equity required |
| BNZ Green Home Loan top-ups | Up to $80,000 | 1% p.a. |
| Westpac Greater Choices Home Loan | LoanUp to $50,000 | Interest-free for 5 years; no establishment fees |
To better understand the costs based on your roof and your power use, use our solar calculator by dropping in a few details and it works out an estimation of savings based on the number of panels and power, so you can see whether the finance stacks up before you commit.
You don’t have to wait for an election to start saving. Practical next steps:
Get a free, no-obligation solar assessment for your home and see how lower power bills can deliver real cost-of-living relief.
Understand your current power costs and how much you could offset.
Compare solar-only and solar-plus-battery options.
Explore your finance choices, including green loans available today.
Lock in energy savings now, rather than pinning them to an uncertain timeline.
“My power company buys all my solar production, so that’s where the savings come from.”
The biggest savings come from using your own solar rather than selling it. Every unit you use yourself replaces power you’d otherwise buy at the full retail rate, using power from the sun during the day; every unit you export earns a much smaller buy-back. So the real levers are self-consumption, a battery (to shift daytime solar into the evening) and reduced grid imports with export payments a secondary bonus.
This is also where the policies quietly point in the same direction: Labour’s proposed fairer time-of-use export rates and community battery fund are both about getting more value from self-use and storage, helping households strengthen their own renewable generation by using more onsite power and importing less from the grid.
Small, portable solar units (often balcony- or deck-mounted) that plug into an existing socket rather than being wired into your roof. Labour is proposing them as a way for renters to benefit from solar without a permanent installation, and they’d be covered by the kickstart grant.small, portable solar units (often balcony- or deck-mounted) that plug into an existing socket rather than being wired into your roof.
Labour is proposing them as a way for renters to benefit from solar without a permanent installation, and they’d be covered by the kickstart grant.
Plug-in systems aren’t currently legal in NZ, so the first step is changes to regulations. Beyond that, the final product standards and export arrangements in the policy proposals, along with insurance treatment and tenancy implications, all remain open questions.plug-in systems aren’t currently legal in NZ, so the first step is changes to regulations.
Beyond that, the final product standards and export arrangements in the policy proposals, along with insurance treatment and tenancy implications, all remain open questions.
property-linked loans work neatly because the solar system stays with the house. Plug-in solar is different, the panels leave with the tenant, so how a property-linked repayment would be handled when someone moves is one of the details still to be worked out.property-linked loans work neatly because the solar system stays with the house.
Plug-in solar is different, the panels leave with the tenant, so how a property-linked repayment would be handled when someone moves is one of the details still to be worked out.
A realistic expectation: plug-in solar is a modest on-ramp that can trim a renter’s bill, not a whole-home solution. But as a first step for people who’ve never been able to access solar.
The final income thresholds, exactly who qualifies for a grant, how existing solar owners would be treated, the application process, the rollout timing and any regional limits.
These are big gaps and a good reason to treat both schemes as works in progress rather than firm plans you can bank on, especially because those unresolved thresholds matter most for how a ratepayer-assistance scheme is designed and targeted.
A policy announcement is the very start of the course from campaign promise to installation. Before either set of election proposals could pay for a panel on your roof, it has to pass through every one of these stages, and the details can still change at each stage:
There are a lot of steps, and a lot of time, between today’s headlines and an actual installation. Any one of them can change the timeline, the budget or the eligibility rules.
Every month you hold out for a scheme is another power bill in a period of rising power prices, another winter, another stretch exposed to outages, and another month of free rooftop energy you’ll never get back. And when you weigh that against what you’d actually be waiting for, the case for waiting gets thin.
If your preferred party wins, if the coalition agrees, if the legislation passes, if the funding survives, if the eligibility rules end up including you, if application demand doesn’t create a queue, and if installers aren’t booked out months ahead once a scheme launches, and through the whole course of legislation and programme design.
Solar finance, green loans, battery installations and real energy savings are all available today – no election required or pending government programmes.
Lightforce Solar doesn’t endorse any political party. What we support is simple: better access to solar, greater energy resilience, support for the continued growth of renewable generation, lower household power bills and more choice for New Zealanders.
We welcome any policy from either side that helps more Kiwi homes generate their own clean power, and we think the things any good scheme must also get right are cutting the consenting red tape (including for lines companies and other parts of the delivery system) and making export rates fairer.
Whoever forms the next government, New Zealand families deserve clear, honest information and practical solutions they can act on today.
Get a solar assessment · Understand your current power costs · Compare battery options · Explore finance choices · Lock in energy savings now
Read the information below to find out answers to our most commonly asked questions.
No national residential solar subsidy currently exists. The policies discussed are election proposals rather than programmes available today.
Traditional rooftop solar is difficult for renters because the property owner controls installation. Labour has proposed legalising plug-in solar options specifically aimed at renters.
This depends on future regulations, approved products, and installation standards. Significant details are still being developed and unlikely to be in place for some time as legal and risk issues are worked out
Currently unknown. Neither proposal has confirmed how existing installations would be treated.
Labour has proposed a grant of up to $3,000 but has not published detailed income thresholds yet.
