Cyclone Damien brought wind speeds of 194km/hr but didn’t leave Karratha completely in the dark with 288 GFS-200’s safely illuminating the streets and pathways when mains lighting supplied by the power grid had failed.
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Tropical Cyclone Damien struck the WA cast earlier this month as a category 3 severe tropical cyclone at around 3:30pm on Saturday the 8th of February bringing with it severe, destructive winds, torrential rainfall and storm surges. The recorded rainfall for the region was 235.2mm received by 9:00am Sunday with about 10,000 residents affected by power outages and intermittent phone reception and over 100 calls for assistance.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said Karratha and Dampier residents were hit with the brunt of the storm with Karratha residents surviving the hardest impact as the eye wall crossed directly over them. Tropical Cyclone Damien was the third tropical cyclone for the season but the first to be classified as severe.
Weather conditions in the Pilbara region can be some of the harshest in Australia. The City of Karratha had trialed other solar lighting products in the past but few could endure the punishing conditions.
Green Frog Systems have established a name in this space, designing high performance solar lighting to withstand extreme environments such as these and agreed to supply the City with GFS-200 Solar Street Lights. These units carry a cyclone rated structural design (Region D – Severe Cyclonic ) and will reliably continue to operate through extreme temperatures, storms and flooding.
Since 2017 Green Frog Systems have worked with the City of Karratha, deploying almost 300 solar street lights with another shipment set for delivery. The City has been so impressed with the GFS-200 solar street lights that they have identified Green Frog Systems as their preferred supplier for all solar powered lighting.
From nearly 300 installed only three (3) solar street lights were damaged during Cyclone Damien from flying debris.
