13,795 solar installations registered with the Clean Energy Regulator · ranked top 5% in Queensland · data current as at 2026-08-15
Based on last week's Queensland grid mix (avg 810 gCO₂/kWh), Cairns's 13,795 solar systems typically avoid around 85.48 tonnes of CO₂ every hour during peak generation.
Grid intensity data: Open Electricity (openelectricity.org.au) · 7-day average · updates monthly
Cairns is one of Queensland's strongest solar communities, ranking 14th in the state — ahead of 97% of all Queensland postcodes tracked by the Clean Energy Regulator. 1,101 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 136,548 tonnes of CO₂ every year — equivalent to taking 65,023 cars off the road or powering around 27,310 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.