Plains Producer $1.50
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
STAR OF THE NORTH
Blackouts hit region, as crops survive gale Les Pearson reports: STRONG winds, thousands of lightning strikes and stormy rain showers caused power outages and caused some concern for farmers in the district on Monday evening. SA Power Networks spokesperson, Paul Roberts, said about 4000 people in the district were affected by power outages for varying lengths of time, with some localities left without power throughout Monday night. Mr Roberts said the outages were common statewide, predominantly caused by lightning strikes. Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster, Darren Ray, said 132,000 lightning strikes were recorded across SA in the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday morning, much of the activity focussed over central districts of the state. “The storm event came from a trough of low pressure extending from an intense low-pressure system to the
! d e p p Za
south of the Great Australian Bight,” Mr Ray explained. “The weather will remain fairly mild over the next few days, with a weak burst of shower activity later on Thursday.” Rainfall was limited to less than 10mm apart from the lower southeast and Fleurieu Peninsula, where 1820mm fell. Falls through the Mid North were in the 3-8mm range.
Highest wind gust looks to have been at Cape Willoughby on Kangaroo Island, where an 89km/h gust was recorded. Highest gust in the Mid North area was 76mk/h at Snowtown. These winds had some impact on local canola crops, according to Mid North Ag Services agronomist, Matt Gibbins, with some lighter windrowed crops blown away. n Continued Page 2
Snowtown w South auStralia
LIGHTNING strikes near Balaklava, looking west.
CHARGE OF THE BIKE BRIGADE BECAME FAMILY FUN DAY
Project BaSicS
Country Health in restructure
Our Client: TrustPower Limited – a N renewable power generator and retailer.
Turbine Type: S88_2.1MW with 88m ro COUNTRY Health SA is introducing a new operational organisational structure from December 1. ey tatiSticS Country Health SA chief executive, Adjunct Professor Belinda MoyGreen produced will provide enou es, saidenergy the contemporary structure 70,000 average Australian households per would make CHSA consistent with other states and better aligned with Final output Local is expected the Medicare regions.to be in exces electricity each year, saving more than “The new structure will consist greenhouse gasrural emissions annually. of five separate regions rather than the current 10 clusters,” Prof. • Installed capacity: 98.7MW Moyes said. • Introduction Hub Height: 80 metres of the new structure followed consultation with stake• Maximum Blade Tip Height: 124 metr holders. • Swept area of each WTG: 1.5 acres; “Patients can be assured there will total swept area for the wind farm: 7 be no disruption to our services. They • Total number of escorted truck journ will continue to receive the same during construction: 350 high-level of care from their local • 7 km of high tension cables for rock-a CHSA services,” Prof. Moyes said. THEY came on bikes and on foot to help raise funds for the Shamus Liptrot Cycling Trail and Balaklava Golf Club. And they succeeded, with • Continued 27 km of rock trenching for 33kV reti a wonderful day of fun, food and entertainment last Saturday evening. More pictures and report, Page 3 n Page 2 • 5000 m3 of concrete • 8000 ton of steel for towers • 27 km of underground cable • 18 km overhead 33kV line • 110 ton weight of 120MVA transform • Total weight of cargo to be transpor tonnes turbines convert The construction of Stage 2• ofWind the Snowtown Wind the energy electrical energy. The moving air tha Farm by TrustPower will create South Australia’s biggest the 47 S88 wind turbines in one hour, wind farm – and the second largest in Australia. will weigh over 16,000,000 tonnes
K
S
Making Snowtown the wind farm capital of SA
As well as utilising ground-breaking Siemens technology, Payback of the “embodied energy” of the the wind farm will bring enormous benefits to SA – approximately five months. environmental, employment, economic and community. It will make South Australia the nation’s wind energy state, boosting the State’s output to 42 per cent of Australia’s total wind power generation. www.trustpower.co.nz
How the wind turbines work, what the project means to Snowtown’s community, pages 14 & 15