CANBERRA, April 24 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest renewable electricity source, the Snowy Hydro power scheme, may have to shut down major generating turbines due to the nation's crippling 10-year drought. In a desperate attempt to keep running, the Snowy Hydro operator said on Tuesday it had turned to cloud seeding to boost water inflows. "It is unrealistic for anyone to think that the Snowy scheme could somehow have been immune from the effects of the current severe drought," Snowy Hydro Ltd Managing Director Terry Charlton said in a statement.
Prime Minister John Howard last week asked Australians to pray for rain in the food bowl Murray-Darling River basin, an area the size of France and Spain that accounts for 41 percent of the nation's agriculture.
Howard warned that without heavy winter rains in coming months, irrigation in the food bowl would be turned off as the worst drought for 100 years grips Australia.
In a move that local authorities feared could reduce supply of power to the capital Canberra, and major cities Sydney and Melbourne, some of Snowy Hydro's operations could be stopped by May-July without heavy winter rains, the Snowy Hydro said. The company said that if current drought conditions continue, water levels would drop by May to minimum operating levels in the two major artificial lakes at the heart of the project, an internal assessment for Snowy Hydro said. "It is possible, but not yet probable, Lake Jindabyne will drop up to a further 1.5 metres (5 feet) below minimum... by late June/early July," it said in a statement.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD212960.htm
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