4,861 solar installations registered with the Clean Energy Regulator · ranked top 25% in Queensland · data current as at 2026-08-15
Based on last week's Queensland grid mix (avg 810 gCO₂/kWh), Cairns's 4,861 solar systems typically avoid around 30.12 tonnes of CO₂ every hour during peak generation.
Grid intensity data: Open Electricity (openelectricity.org.au) · 7-day average · updates monthly
Cairns sits in the top third of Queensland for solar uptake, ranking 83rd in the state out of 449 postcodes in the Clean Energy Regulator dataset. 402 new systems were added in the past 12 months, with growth of 3% on the previous year — typical of a maturing market where most interested households have already installed.
The combined impact is substantial: Cairns's solar community avoids an estimated 48,116 tonnes of CO₂ every year — equivalent to taking 22,912 cars off the road or powering around 9,623 average Australian homes with clean electricity. This is estimated using Queensland's average grid emissions intensity of 810 gCO₂/kWh, sourced from OpenElectricity, applied to an average system size of 9kW.