“The sunshine, combined with high levels of home ownership due to the area’s more affordable housing, partly explains why the city is leading the way.”

While Bundaberg mayor Jack Dempsey was delighted at the city’s sizzling solar power uptake, he said residents were driven by a need to avoid bill shock, rather than environmentalism.

“The Bundaberg region, unfortunately, has one of the highest rates of socio-economic disadvantage in Australia,” he said.

“We’re not ideologically driven ‘greenies’.

“Residents and businesses are doing it tough. We’re motivated to reduce costs in order to make ends meet.

“We’ve led the way with solar installations at many of our biggest consuming facilities, such as the airport and wastewater treatment plants.

“Energy efficiency improvements combined with solar at the airport have resulted in a 12-14 per cent decrease in electricity costs.

“But despite this, our electricity costs are still rising and we’ll continue to develop our own generation capability.”

The average cost of a fully installed domestic five-kilowatt systems typically costs $5390, according to the energy broker solarchoice.net.au.

The report also found that Queensland leads the country on large-scale renewable energy, with the state boasting 88 per cent of new, large-scale solar projects completed in 2017.

Climate councillor and University of Queensland Professor Karen Hussey said Queensland is well-placed to transition from fossil fuels to modern, clean renewable power.

“Queensland is one of the sunniest places in Australia, so it’s fitting that the state should be leading the way in harnessing the sun to generate clean, reliable renewable energy,” she said.

Top 10 solar postcodes by capacity

1. BUNDABERG QLD 4670

11,060 installations

38,975kW capacity

2. HERVEY BAY QLD 4655

9673 installations

31,637kW capacity

3. MANDURAH WA 6210

10,303 installations

30,013kW capacity

4. MACKAY QLD 4740

6850 installations

29,778kW capacity

5. WANGARA AND WANNEROO WA 6065

7822 installations

28,526kW capacity

6. TOOWOOMBA QLD 4350

7915 installations

28,319kW capacity

7. NERANG AND CARRARA QLD 4211

7332 installations

26,867kW capacity

8. CALOUNDRA QLD 4551

8612 installations

26,147kW capacity

9. BEENLEIGH QLD 4207

6594 installations

23,869kW capacity

10. CAIRNS QLD 4870

5034 installations

23,206kW capacity