How to optimise your PV system: what to do with exported power in 2026

You optimise a PV system by using as much of the electricity it produces yourself and sending only the rest to the grid. A kilowatt-hour consumed at home is currently worth around 4–6.5 CZK, because you don't have to buy it. For power exported to the grid, a trader will usually pay you only 0.2–1 CZK, and with spot-based buy-back often nothing at midday. The order is therefore clear: self-consumption, water heating and storage, sharing – and selling to the grid last.

Summary

• Buy-back prices for exported power have fallen from thousands to hundreds of CZK per MWh. Fixed offers today are typically 200–1,050 CZK/MWh excl. VAT.
• Nobody automatically takes half of your exported power for free. There are, however, caps on export power (NZÚ subsidy, distribution operator) and spot formulas that pay out only part of the price.
• You save the most by shifting consumption to midday and heating water with surplus power. Batteries and electricity sharing add a further share.
• In spring and autumn, when the panels are still producing and the house already needs heat, a quiet miner can use up the surplus: it heats and mines something on top.

How much you get for exported power today

The days when ČEZ bought exported power for 4,750 CZK/MWh (in 2023) are over. In 2026, traders pay hundreds of CZK per MWh for power exported from home PV systems, i.e. a few tenths of a CZK per kWh.

Prices as of January 2026 according to the traders' price lists and the Ušetřeno.cz comparison. They change, so always check the current offer with your supplier.

With spot-based buy-back, the problem is timing. At midday, when your system produces the most, so does everyone else's, and the exchange price drops. In 2025 the Czech Republic had 322 hours with a negative electricity price. From January to May 2026, Czech solar plants generated almost 18 % of their electricity in hours when the price was below zero.

Do they really buy only half of your exported power?

We often hear that a trader buys only half of the exported power and takes the rest for free. No such general rule exists. In practice, however, you will come across the 50 % figure in several places:

• Nová zelená úsporám subsidy condition. For systems on family homes subsidised from 15 February 2024, the export power was capped at 50 % of installed capacity – not half of the energy produced. According to an analysis by installation companies, you lose on average roughly 5 % of exported power, only exceptionally more. The conditions that apply to your system are stated in the subsidy decision.
• Limits set by the distribution operator. Distribution operators increasingly allow connection only with limited exports or none at all. In the 12 months to April 2026, EG.D rejected 30 % of applications and now approves new PV systems almost exclusively without exports.
• Spot formulas. Some buy-back schemes pay only part of the spot price – for example 60 % or 40 %. It looks like “half”, but it concerns the price, not the quantity.
• Exports without a contract. If you send electricity to the grid without a buy-back contract, nobody pays you for it. If you exceed the tolerance (300 W and 30 kWh per month for connection points with zero reserved capacity), the distribution operator may even charge a penalty.

The conclusion is the same: exported power has little value today. It pays to use as much of it as possible at home.

What one kilowatt-hour is worth depending on where it goes

Mining values apply as of 25 October 2026 at today's network difficulty and exchange rate, and change every hour. We show current figures for every miner.

How to increase self-consumption from your PV system

1. Shift consumption to midday

The cheapest step. Run the washing machine, dishwasher, dryer and water heater between 10 am and 3 pm. Most appliances have a delayed start, and inverters and smart plugs can switch an appliance on based on exports.

2. Heat water with surplus power

A hot water tank is the cheapest “battery”. A controller such as WATTrouter (around 9,000 CZK) sends exactly as much power to the heating element as would otherwise flow into the grid. ČEZ also recommends heating water with surplus power and using storage tanks in its advice on reducing exports.

3. Heat pump and buffer tank

Run the heat pump at full power during the day and store the heat in a buffer tank or in underfloor heating. In the evening the house then draws on heat produced from the sun.

4. Home battery

A battery shifts midday production to the evening, when the household consumes the most. In 2026, Nová zelená úsporám supports PV for family homes mainly through an interest-free loan, and a battery is a mandatory part of it. Use battery energy for the household – that is where it has the highest value.

5. Charging an electric car

An electric car charged during the day from surplus power is the ideal consumer for a PV system. A wallbox with export-based control reduces the charging power when a cloud passes.

6. Electricity sharing via the EDC

Since 2025 you can share exported power with up to 10 other connection points – your parents, a cottage, a business. Sharing is calculated per quarter-hour, so you will usually use only part of your exports. The recipient saves the price of the electricity itself but still pays for distribution. In June 2026 more than 46,000 participants were sharing electricity.

7. Virtual battery

The trader “stores” your exported power and deducts it from your later consumption. For example, ČEZ Elektřina pro soláry values exported power at the consumption price reduced by 1,000 CZK/MWh excl. VAT and charges a monthly fee based on the volume exported. You still pay distribution for the electricity you take back, and a virtual battery cannot be combined with buy-back.

8. Miner: heat plus earnings

A miner converts all the electricity it uses into heat – a 1.6 kW miner heats like a 1.6 kW electric heater. The difference is that on top of the heat it also mines cryptocurrency. It makes the most sense in spring and autumn: the panels still produce surplus power around midday and the house already needs heating. Instead of selling for a few tenths of a CZK, the surplus heats a room and earns money.

Example: the Avalon Q has a hashrate of 90 TH/s and a power draw of 1,674 W. At today's yield of 0,79 Kč per 1 TH/s per day, it mines about 71 CZK a day and uses 40 kWh. One kilowatt-hour of exported power therefore earns around 1.76 CZK in it today (as of 25 October 2026) – roughly two to eight times more than a fixed-price buy-back.

In summer, the miner's heat has to be vented outside, otherwise it will reduce its output. Size it according to your typical midday surplus and switch it on based on the excess. You will find a detailed guide with a seasonal calculation in the article Mining with surplus solar power: when it beats the feed-in tariff.

How to protect yourself against negative prices

If you have spot-based buy-back, a negative price means that you pay for the power you export in that hour. What helps:

• setting an export limit in the inverter or switching exports off at negative prices – many inverters and energy management systems can do this based on the spot price,
• switching on appliances in hours with negative prices – the water heater, heat pump, car charging or a miner,
• switching to a fixed buy-back price, which does not change with negative prices.

Step by step: how to optimise your PV system

1. Check your inverter app to see how many kWh you export to the grid each month and at what times.
2. Check your buy-back contract: fixed price or spot? How much do you get per MWh and what fees do you pay?
3. Shift appliances to midday and set delayed starts.
4. Add water heating from surplus power – the fastest payback of all investments.
5. Consider a battery, sharing or a virtual battery depending on how much surplus remains and who you can pass it on to.
6. Put the remaining surplus to good use – by charging a car, storing heat or with a miner that earns money on top of the heat.

What next

• Choose a machine to match your surplus: quiet miners for home mining with today's earnings and payback.
• Calculate what your surplus earns in a miner and how much it saves on heating: Mining with solar panels and heating with a miner.
• Compare the efficiency of models in the ASIC miner profitability overview.
• Not sure which miner suits your PV system? Write to us – we will calculate it with your exports.

Sources

• Ušetřeno.cz: buy-back of electricity from PV (15 January 2026, in Czech)
• Pražská plynárenská: electricity buy-back price list (from 1 October 2025, in Czech)
• oEnergetice.cz: 2025, a year of negative electricity prices (24 January 2026, in Czech)
• oEnergetice.cz: 18 % of solar output in negative-price hours (4 June 2026)
• Silektro: export cap at 50 % of capacity for subsidised PV (in Czech)
• Seznam Zprávy: distribution operators refuse to connect solar systems (5 June 2026, in Czech)
• Peníze na střeše: exports without reserved capacity and penalties (11 April 2026, in Czech)
• ČEZ: what exports are and how to minimise them (in Czech)
• ČEZ: Elektřina pro soláry (in Czech)
• epravo.cz: electricity sharing after 1 August 2026 (in Czech)
• Seznam Zprávy: electricity sharing statistics (28 July 2026, in Czech)
• TZB-info: household electricity prices (in Czech)
• Nová zelená úsporám: interest-free loan 2026 (leaflet, in Czech)