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The first turbine to operate
This turbine produced more than a megawatt of power before Christmas of 2007 and thereby a big bonus for Suzlon. The big crane can be seen lying on the ground at the foot of the turbine. It looks like the little dog (Socrates) is off on a quest.
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Fog streamers blowing past two of the newly built turbines
The turbine on the left was running, hence the multiple images of the blades (from the HDR photography used for this image).
2008/05/05
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These turbines were not yet running (another HDR image)
On this morning I waited about an hour for an improvement in the weather, and just about the time I was ready to decide to cut my losses and leave, the clouds broke and these streamers of fog blew across the top of the hills.
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Seen from a hill near my property (Elysium, Armagh, Clare Valley) 40km to
the east of the wind farm.
The air must be clear and the light suitable to get such a photo from this
sort of distance.
It is necessary for there to be strong contrast between the turbines and
the sky behind; sunlight on the turbines with dark clouds behind can also
be effective.
The focal length used in this photo, in 35mm film camera terms, is 430mm.
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Cumulus clouds behind three of the newly erected Snowtown turbines
The clouds make a more interesting view.
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There are a few scattered sheoak (Alocasuarina verticilata) trees
near the top of the ridge; many of them dead.
(Seedling sheoaks are very palatable to the sheep that have grazed these
hills for well over a hundred years.
If the young trees are to survive they must be protected from grazing.
Many of the older trees have died, there have been no replacements for
them.)
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A tower section lying down on the left, looking toward the Port Broughton
plain in the north-west
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One of the two main cranes used for the high lifts.
The yellow weights above the man were marked 10 tonnes each, there was
a similar stack on the other side of the crane.
There is a smaller but much more mobile 300-tonne crane just visible
on the right
of the photo.
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Looking through a small section of a big construction crane that was
lying on the ground toward a part finished tower
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A small patch of sunshine peaks through a gap in the wintery sky.
Note the lack of trees and the rounded hills; ideal for wind farming, nothing to slow the wind or make the flow turbulent. The more distant turbines were working on this day, only one of the nearer ones was.
Looking north
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Watery late afternoon sunshine catching one of the turbines
Again looking over the Port Broughton plain (Spencer Gulf in the distance
on the left, southern Flinders Ranges in the distance on the right).
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Opening day
The weather was threatening rain, but while there was drizzle in the early morning the remainder of the day was dry.
Brendan Ryan of Suzlon in the yellow vest.
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These blades are awaiting transport to the Hallett Hill Wind Farm, at this
time under construction.
One of the scarce Barunga Range trees can be seen on this photo. While getting them to grow on top of the range might be difficult, they would do well enough in the gullies on the flanks of the range, especially on the slopes with a southern aspect.
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Busses took anyone interested to the top of the Barunga Range for a
close-up view of the Wind Farm.
The view on opening day from the top of the Barunga Range
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The northern-most turbine, looking north; sunrise
It is possible to get within about a kilometre of the turbines via Hope Gap road, but there is a goodly climb from the road to the top of the range. All the turbines are on privately owned land.
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Looking south from the northern end of the wind farm; there are 47 turbines
in the wind farm.
The lack of trees is conspicuous in this photo. Australian farmers, or at least Mid North South Australian farmers, are not good at providing shade and shelter for their stock.
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Looking south from the northern end of the wind farm
Shortly after sunrise
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It happened that the Moon was well placed to allow this shot
There is only a relatively short period in the early morning and late
afternoon when the brightness of both moon and objects such as turbines
are suitable for photographing together.
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A detail from the above photo
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The turbines appeared to be turning quite leasurely, but the blade in this
photo shows movement blur in spite of the 1/250 second 'shutter speed'.
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Looking east from the top of the Barunga Range
There had been a big rain a few days earlier and the salt lakes all
contained some water.
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