As the annual Sunshine Coast World Environment Day kicks off tomorrow from 9am-4pm at the University of the Sunshine Coast, organisers have been gearing up to educate and inform roughly 5,000 expected participants. With over 70 exhibitors, the festival is an excellent forum to inform and educate Sunshine Coast residents about clean and renewable energy sources including solar power.

While many people in the Sunshine Coast region have already embraced the switch to going green, it is believed that the festival will further boost the installations of solar panels by helping to clear up any lingering consumer confusion and misinformation. The event’s organiser Wiebe ter Bals, Executive Officer at the Sunshine Coast Environment Council (SCEC), says that their community has the desire and ability to reduce carbon emissions and be a sustainable region. Ter Bals urged locals to come along and support the event, promising they will gain access to new and innovative products that will aid them in making the right choice about how to best go about reducing their carbon footprint.

The event will also feature high profile speakers from across the country to discuss and present the facts about the current status of the environment, and how renewable energy sources can be of help. The discussion will also highlight community engagement through a question and answer session.

This year’s event has a theme of “A Festival of Ideas”, and the organisers and local government hopes that it will open up the creative thinking of those who participate, as well as supply them many new ideas to take home and use immediately.

The event includes something for everyone with fashion and food a highlight, and will also feature the first appearance of the “solar shark” on the Coast. The Solar shark is a solar powered car that once entered and finished the world renowned solar race from Darwin to Adelaide. The innovative car was designed and built by the students of TAFE in an attempt to boost solar power use.

Entry is free and there will be free transportation from in and out of the festival’s grounds by Sunbus, so your local team at Premier Solar Queensland encourages you to go along and find out how you can do your bit to make sure that our beautiful part of the world stays that way!