Toowoomba residents react to Southern Hotel’s solar panel, EV car park proposal

Readers have been left divided on a Toowoomba pub’s new plan involving more than 600 solar panels in its car park. Vote in our poll.

A Toowoomba pub’s plan to outfit its car park with electric vehicle charging stations and shaded areas made up of more than 600 solar panels has divided readers.

The Southern Hotel in Kearneys Spring lodged plans last month with Toowoomba Regional Council for a minor change to its current development approval to allow for the new works.

The new shade structures would accommodate 629 solar panels to generate up to 280kW of electricity.

The pub also allocated four bays to become EV charging stations, which would have a capacity of 194kW.

News of the plan sparked a massive reaction from readers, with many praising the venue’s forward-thinking initiative to reduce costs and shrink its carbon footprint.

Many also considered the proposal a better use of solar panels than farmland, which has become a contentious issue of late.

But in a sign of how divisive renewable energy as a topic has become, a huge slew of comments described the idea as a “waste of money”.

Here’s what you had to say:

Support for solar panels and EV chargers:

Graham Klerks

Our local pub installed a load of panels. I noticed the local Maccas also has panels. The BP garage too. Installing EV chargers is just a logical extension of that. It’s the way forward.

Robert Wertheimer

Energy autonomy, shade for patron’s cars, extra income stream, more patrons using your pub, brilliant.

James Gittings

No-brainer. Free energy back for the buildings and customer get to charge their cars too. Shopping centres should start making this the norm now as well.

David Jones

Fantastic to see. Saving money and helping the environment.

Nick Read

Good on you folk. Thankfully attitudes and practices are changing.

Brett Mason

Fantastic! So much scope for businesses to save money and attract customers! ️

Robin Hill

Great idea!

Scepticism for solar

Paul McIntosh

It’s interesting that people don’t realise solar can’t generate any power what so ever on its own. It needs to have power to generate power.

Booma Bob

Up goes prices and pub goes broke … watch this space.

Scott Crawford

Stupidity what a waste. I hope no taxpayer’s money going to this thing.

Rod Cox

I can’t believe how a business can be stupid enough to believe this solar crap. The property should be paid by the provider a rent for the use of the space.

David Smith

Love solar panels on poles at a pub. One drunk and the whole thing comes down. High insurance?

Lucas Lawson

Commercial businesses with large scale solar are now being paid to turn them off because of the massive load discrepancies.

David Kerr

Yet we here in Nth Queensland where we only have Ergon as our power supplier we can only put up to 5kw a day back to the grid and the price has just been reduced to 0.08c solar tariff back to the grid.

Preference for solar panels away from farmland:

Lyn Duncan

Good idea. Better than putting them on rural land and vandalising the bush with them. They are eyesores in the wrong place.

Philip Murphy

Better a carpark than the bush.

Sean Robinson

Carparks are the perfect place for solar panels, not paddocks and cleared forests.

Aaron Mc

Stop covering farm land and do this.

Lee Selby

Better then farmland.

Eric Olthwaite

Every pub, grocery store, school, etc., should be covered in solar panels. So cheap now you would be a dill not to.

Greg Blomfield

Should be done wherever possible! Farm land is for farming, Italy banned solar on any agricultural land. We need to do the same.