If you are relying on the changeable whether of sun and wind to provide power be prepared for its extremes. Gas,uranium and coal are physical substances extracted from the earth, not dependent or affected by the whether. From the photos of the downed pylons it was the weight of wind in the wires that pulled them down in their strongest construction. The construction of the infrastructure needs redesign; even the current wind turbines are poorly designed to stand against extremes of wind. Rows of solar panels in an open area tilted to the sun are subject to dislodgment in high wind velocity and flying debris.

SM: The answer is that they shouldn't have.

Should, Would, Could have. all very nice words. Something to throw at the Enemy, regardless of who they are.

Regardless of how Electricity is Generated, what other method do you propose be put in place to deliver High Voltage Transmission of Power to the people all over the State?

There is no doubt that the SA Wetherill government is moronic. 40% of our power comes from WINDmills that don't actually work when there is too little WIND or too much WIND. WIND power is a joke.

On top of that, the morons BLEW UP our only coal fired power station a few months ago and, finally, they didn't bother to maintain the one gas powered station on Pelican Point. The normal situation has been 40% renewables, and 30% from Victoria, which means that the other 30% must come from that other piss-poor source, solar. That, or the idiots can't do their sums: if wind and sun are the 'renewables' together, we only have a capaity of 70%.

Someone mentioned the crumpling of the interconnector pylons. Well, they were supposed to bear 200kph winds, but failed in winds under 100kph! A person connected with the design and building of the things said on radio that they were crap. It has also been noted that Qld regularly has cyclonic winds that have never plunged the ENTIRE state into darkness.

The entire fiasco is to be blamed on the stupid Wetherill government pandering to lunatic greens. The idiots were warned that their direction on power was stupid, and that the link to Victoria could not sustain their fantasy with renewable energy. That has now been proved.

The rest of you might find yourselfs inundated with asylum seekers from SA.

It was not renewable energy that caused the blackout it was a storm made worse by deniers and shills for fossil fuel.
Many more to come if we dont stop listening to the ignorant and the greedy.

Malcaymen has shown how unfit he is to be prime minister with his breathtaking lies and total lack of compassion for people suffering in a natural disaster. The cretin hasnt even bothered to show his face all weekend let alone visit the scene of the disaster and provide some assistance.

I don't know what side of Politics is IN in SA at the moment, but obviously it's that's Governments fault.

Then again, if the Opposition was in power then it would be their fault. Such are the facts of Political Life, eh.

Shadow,

Of course it's a cockup of monumental proportions. But the blaming of renewables when the evidence says otherwise shows (in runner's words) how dumbed down you, he and ttbn have become!

At which election was a second interconnector a core promise by Labor? And are you aware that one was built (and is in operation) linking the Riverland with Sunraysia? Its capacity is lower, but the capacity of the first interconnector has been increased.

'Tis no secret that I'd like to see a third interconnector linking Port Augusta with Broken Hill. Indeed I'd like to see a fourth linking Olympic Dam to Queensland (with geothermal power stations along the route) but funding it without increasing power bills even more would be difficult. More battery storage might turn out to be a better value solution.

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ttbn, you've got your sums wrong: much of SA's electricity is generated in SA from natural gas. There are lots of gas fired power stations in the state, though Pelican Point is the most efficient one.

ITYF it was Alinta Energy, not the Wetherill government, who blew up Port Augusta power station. And all SA's power stations, including Pelican Point, had been sold off by the Olsen government. so of course the government didn't maintain it – it was no longer their job. The private sector owners kept it in operational condition, but they had no financial incentive to switch it on!

The pylons that failed were not on the interconnector, but between Port Augusta and Adelaide. We don't yet know for sure why they failed, but there have been some reports of tornadoes. Another possibility is the foundations being weakened by prolonged heavy rain. And I'm wondering if it could be that the pylons were designed for copper wires, and the wind loadings on the steel cored aluminium wires were higher.

Instead of instinctively blaming renewables, first find out what really happened.