The hot weather makes camping outdoors a bit uncomfortable but certainly helps keep the batteries charged to run the fridges, water pump and lights with. As soon as the Anderson plug connected with the 180 watt solar panel the instrument panel indicated a jump in voltage. For the next 3 days we were self sufficient on renewable energy. Could Central Queensland be more pro-active in large scale renewable energy production? Climate change is real, whether it is natural or manmade can be debated, the by-product though is a huge industry in renewable energy. We appear to be active in pursuing opportunities that possibly poison our ground water, associated with war, gambling and allegedly contribute to global warming; but what of our efforts in attracting producers of natural renewable energy? Coal seam gas, military base, casino and the development of the Galilee Basin will all create jobs and thus boost our economy, but at what future cost? CQ has huge tracts of land allegedly unusable after mining has ceased, could it be used to establish solar or wind farms. On November 4 of this year proposals were to be submitted for large scale solar production projects in Queensland that wanted to access some of the $100 million in grant funds Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has available. Was any proposal for CQ submitted? Other than saying we have any open door to renewable energy production proposals are our CQ Councils chasing it? We have abundant sunshine, more than the coal in the ground. The solar industry is on its way to becoming a trillion dollar industry, it attracts innovators, entrepreneurs, it creates jobs, it can utilise unproductive land, its naturally renewable, it can boost the economy; shouldn’t it be an industry we actively pursue. All opportunities need to be evaluated. That evaluation though needs to consider the future as much as the present. Natural renewable energy may not presently be able to provide all our energy requirements, it may be more expensive to presently produce, but it’s an industry that is going to continue to grow and arguably better the planet. What is CQ doing to include large scale natural renewable energy production in the mix to boost our economy?