Posted on 02/23/2015 2:51:27 PM PST by matt04
More than 100 birds have been injured during testing of a new solar power farm.
Biologists say 130 birds caught fire mid-air while entering an area of concentrated solar energy created by the 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nevada.
Experts believe the birds may have been attracted by the glow of the farm’s tower, but the project’s owners, SolarReserve, say they have found a way to reduce the fatalities.
The solar project is close to being completion and is set to go launch next month.
Thousands of mirrors focus sunlight onto one central tower to melt salt inside it, which will in turn heat water so that steam will turn turbines to generate electricity.
At its peak, the project will produce 110 megawatts of electricity, which will be sold to NV Energy – a firm that powers the majority of homes in Nevada, Rewire reported.
In a test, one third of the project’s 10,000 mirrors were moved to focus sunlight at a point 1,200 feet above ground level – at approximately twice the height of its tower.
It took biologists just an hour and a half to notice the first of the ‘streamers’ – birds that catch fire and leave a trail of smoke in the air -when entering the field of solar energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Solar farms are a sacrament of the left. They don’t care about birds.
I believe the tortoise is also protected at Pendleton. Spot one and the whole mission is shut down. Can’t let the bugger pee or it’ll die.
Eagle Choppers.
It’s all for the good of the planet, those birds pro’lly contribute to global warming anyway.
Would be nice to live long enough to see how future generations re-purpose the parts from these windmills once society decays beyond the ability to maintain them.
So build a massively expensive Darth Vader death machine to cook some geese?
:p
I wouldn’t be sad if copper thieves kept targeting these turbines.
Good luck trying to sell that house. I doubt any sane person would even make a offer.
Must smell like a KFC restaurant.
Taking heat energy and returning it to the atmosphere like this seems to be a sign of big time inefficiency. Not to mention a man-made factor in “climate change on the warming side”...
I smell roasted chikin’.
The people who lived there actually got it sold. One of the windfarm leaseholders in the area bought it for about 30% less than than the original owners had in it.
How about a video of Hang Gliding Greenies soaring with these birds….
Never mind!
That would be like the Carousel scene (2:51) in "Logan's Run". Man, I'd pay to see that! :-)
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