The mass of new homes being built in the southern Sunshine Coast has also helped power one of our suburbs into the top three in the state for most residential rooftop solar systems.
The installations contribute to what the Queensland Government reveals creates “more generation capacity than Queensland’s two largest power stations combined”.
The state government recently announced the top 10 postcodes in Queensland for uptake of the renewable energy source.
Caloundra’s 4551 postcode came third with 12,800 solar households, behind Bundaberg (4670) with 15,600 in first place, and second-placed Hervey Bay (4655) with 14,000.
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The coastal suburb beat out much larger centres, including 4th placed Toowoomba (4350) with 12,200 solar households and Mackay (4740) in 5th with 11,600.
The government has also launched a new online search tool, where Queenslanders can find out where their postcode ranks.
Here’s how some other Sunshine Coast postcodes fared:
• 4575 (Kawana Waters): 4934 Solar PV installations.
• 4558 (Maroochydore): 2639
• 4556 (Buderim): 8422
• 4567 Noosa Heads: 2043
• 4566 (Noosaville): 1979
• 4573 (Coolum): 4958
• 4552 (Maleny): 2201
• 4519 (Beerwah): 1888.
Buderim is ranked No.16 in Queensland.
More than 722,000 Queensland homes had solar systems, with Deputy Premier Steven Miles noting that a new system is connected in the state every 11 minutes.
“Queensland not only leads the nation but also the world in rooftop solar,” he said.
“While rooftop solar supplied 8.9 per cent of Queensland’s total energy needs last financial year, in the middle of the day it can represent more than 40 per cent of generation.”
Bokarina-based Halcol Energy has just been named eighth-highest solar installer in Queensland, covering an area from Gympie to Brisbane.
But administration manager Eve Colley said the latest Caloundra installations figure was surprising.
“I’ve got no idea why that (postcode) would have come up. It’s not as though we’ve got most of our work there,” she said. “It’s busy in general on the Sunshine Coast.
“My initial reaction would be that it’s due to the new estates. You’re probably looking at more new builds in Caloundra, just due to the amount of homes in Aura.
“There’s no one particular area (for solar inquiries). We do a lot in Wurtulla which is opposite us – that’s just on older houses. So, our work is definitely spread.”
Ms Colley said that her company had definitely noticed a slowdown in the middle of the year when supply chain problems and increases in shipment costs impacted the bottom line of installation package costs. But it made more sense than ever for people to install solar, especially in Queensland.
“We’ve had the worst weather this year for solar probably, but it’s still absolutely been beneficial with the increase in price of electricity,” she said.
“With the increases they are predicting – a 33% increase in electricity bills, it makes more sense now to get on to the solar train than ever before.
“Batteries are going to come into play next year with that increase in price and at the moment, why would you be sending your excess energy back to the grid for 6c/5c when you could be putting that into your battery to then use at night time so you don’t have to buy from the grid?”
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