Solar panels in Townsville

Where the installs are going

The growth suburbs are Burdell, Mount Low, Deeragun and Bohle Plains in the north west, where new estates have been going up for a decade, and Kirwan and Kelso, which are older but large. Air conditioning is the reason most Townsville households install: a summer bill here is a different order of magnitude to one in Brisbane, and the array runs hardest on the same days the house does.

Roofs and homes in Townsville

Cyclone rating is not optional. Townsville is in a cyclonic wind region, and every panel, rail and fixing has to be certified for it; a good local installer will show you the engineering for the mounting system without being asked. Most roofs are corrugated iron or Colorbond on timber or steel framing, which is ideal for solar as long as the battens are sound. Salt applies to anything near the water, from The Strand to the northern beaches and the island. Heat is the other factor: panels here run hot, so an array with airflow beneath it and an inverter in the shade keep output up.

The network: Ergon Energy

Ergon Energy runs the network across regional Queensland. Its standard connection for single-phase homes limits export to 5 kW, and larger or three-phase systems go through a connection application that a competent installer manages. Ergon has been more conservative than the southern distributors about larger exports in some areas, so if you want a big system, ask about the export limit on your street before you size it. A battery in Townsville earns its keep through the evening air conditioning load and through the occasional outage.