Nestled deep in the Gulf of Carpentaria, 750 kilometres west of Cairns in tropical Far North Queensland, lies the Sunset Tavern, Karumba. As popular with the locals as it is with backpackers and Australian tourists, the Tavern is famous for its seafood, sunsets views, and ice cold beer. 

Not surprisingly, keeping all that beer ice cold requires some serious refrigeration.

“Our energy bills were routinely in the vicinity of $80,000,” explains Sunset Tavern General Manager, Ben Malady. “The prospect of a solar installation that would enable us to both reduce our environmental impact and cut costs, was really exciting.”

But the impact of COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions on Queensland’s tourism industry, as 2020 unfolded, was immense. So while installing a solar system made perfect sense to Ben, the upfront cost of supply and installation meant the project simply wasn’t feasible without a commercial finance option.

Not to mention the need to design a solar panel configuration that didn’t impede the bird’s-eye view of the Tavern’s iconic ‘ICE COLD BEER’ roof signage, which presented a unique technical challenge for installer, Green Energy Technologies.

Savings to the Tavern since installation was completed in September 2020, have already amounted to a remarkable $50,000.