Josh Jackman, a researcher at The Eco Experts, said the lower-than-market rates on offer were “an insult to people who send green electricity to the grid in good faith.”
Childs said the price paid should be explicitly linked to the wholesale price of electricity.
Only two of the UK’s leading energy suppliers, Octopus and EDF, have said they plan to increase the amount paid to generators in light of the rising price of electricity.
Homeowners can get hundreds of pounds out of their energy bills using solar panels, which typically save a three-bedroom house more than £ 500 a year.
Most of these savings come from the owner generating more of their own energy, which requires less buying on the grid.
However, they can also earn extra money by selling spare energy on the national grid.
A government-administered “power tariff” previously guaranteed a minimum payment for this solar energy, but it was closed to new entrants in 2019 and replaced by the “smart export guarantee” scheme (SEC ).
Providers can offer fixed or variable SEG rates, but the only requirement for rates is that they be above zero.
This means that even though the wholesale price of electricity has skyrocketed to around 20 cents per kilowatt hour this year, suppliers are not required to pay that amount to solar panel owners.
In contrast, the average fixed export tariff paid by suppliers was only 3.9 cents per kilowatt hour, according to research by The Eco Experts.
The owner of a typical three-bedroom house with solar panels could export energy worth £ 420 if sold at market prices, but will only receive about £ 80 below the rates offered by ScottishPower and E.On suppliers.
The figure dropped to £ 52 with SSE, £ 48 with British Gas and just £ 22 with EDF.
The highest paid fixed rates were offered by Octopus, at £ 112 a year, and Tesla, at £ 164.
Chris Hewett, executive director of the industry body Solar Energy UK, said ensuring that solar panel owners receive fairer tariffs was essential to increasing the absorption of green energy.
Rising energy bills have fueled the rush to install solar panels this year, but only about 4% of households have them in total.
Hewett said, “Export tariffs should better reflect the wholesale price of electricity, and if that doesn’t happen, we need a review of the SEG mechanism.”
He asked the Government to consider the matter when examining the overall composition of the wholesale electricity market in a forthcoming review.
“We are committed to ensuring that homes receive a fair price for any renewable energy produced,” the spokesman added.
The government said Thursday night that “it had not been deemed appropriate” to set a minimum price for the SEG when it was initially designed.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said Ofgem was due to present a report on the current system this autumn. “We are committed to ensuring that homes receive a fair price for any renewable energy produced,” the spokesman added.
An EDF spokesman said: “We are currently in the process of reviewing our SEG price available to EDF import customers.”