Environment Emerging solar plants scorch birds mid-air

[tom_mai78101]

Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.

Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.

The investigators want the halt until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group.

The deaths are "alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology," said Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. "There needs to be some caution."

The bird kills mark the latest instance in which the quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm. Solar farms have been criticized for their impacts on desert tortoises, and wind farms have killed birds, including numerous raptors.

'Streamers': Birds Fried in Midair by Solar Plant, Feds Say

Federal wildlife investigators want to halt construction of a larger plant until the full extent of the deaths in California is known.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[jonas]

Poor birds. I also liked the comment of Susan Kraemer:

"
As a reporter who has covered the CSP industry, I am pretty shocked at the poor research here by AP. The count of birds killed in this very large area is actually much lower than this article claims.

97 dead in April was the highest monthly total, at the height of the migration season. Most months have seen fewer than 10 dead birds, mostly sparrows and humming birds. And these are very large areas of desert, where birds die of natural causes as well as flying into the mirrors or near the bright light near the tower.

Birds killed by oil and gas waste ponds annually is in the millions, according to the USFWS, yet, in the US, those energy industries are not even regulated to reduce avian mortality.

By contrast, the Ivanpah project is working on reducing avian mortality, and will soon have a permit from the California Energy Commission to begin testing of various deterrent methods developed in Canada (where the oil and gas industry's waste pond avian mortality was regulated).

The airline industry also uses deterrents to stop birds flying into planes. (28,000 birds were killed by the USDA to try to stop birds flying into planes, before the aviation industry started using bird deterrents.)

Ivanpah's humane bird deterrent project has every chance of success - even with the relatively small numbers it is dealing with.

"

 

[thewrongvine]

lol. Now they just need to find a way to channel the sun rays into a death beam.

 

[FireCat]

Awfull !

 

[Accname]

Man. Just imagine how much more energy we could safe it we used these to cook our meals!

 

[tom_mai78101]

But I want my chicken featherless before being cooked.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Man. Just imagine how much more energy we could safe it we used these to cook our meals!

If I added a few more magnifying glasses to my water catchment system it could probably boil a pot of soup or something.

 

[FireCat]

Man. Just imagine how much more energy we could safe it we used these to cook our meals!

On top of the roof maybe, that could be a good idea. But not every single corner !
It would Just going to end up destroying the environment including birds.

 

[Accname]

Just imagine mcdonalds & co using huge solar plants to cook meals and then store them in special containers that conserve the heat.
Imagine in the future we have heat gatherers who harvest heat from sunny places on earth and transport it to the north.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Just imagine mcdonalds & co using huge solar plants to cook meals and then store them in special containers that conserve the heat.
Imagine in the future we have heat gatherers who harvest heat from sunny places on earth and transport it to the north.

But you don't get your McQuarter Pounder when you're rummaging your tasks to get through your deadline in the night. Special containers that holds heat for the night is not a good profitable way of making your burgers, because you want them to be freshly cooked when you start your orders. Just use electricity from the solar farms to cook them with an electric stove is fine.

 

[Varine]

You clearly do not know how McDonalds work.

 

[tom_mai78101]

You clearly do not know how McDonalds work.

Yes, because I don't know how fast foods work here in US.

 

[Varine]

It works pretty much the same everywhere.