Posted on 08/18/2014 8:30:30 AM PDT by No One Special
Thousands of birds are flying into a new solar "mega-trap" in the middle of California's Mojave Desert, killing the avian lot at a rate of up to one bird every two minutes, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The state-of-the-art Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS), which opened in February, is the world's largest solar plant to utilize "power towers," skyscraping structures that receive beams of focused solar rays to generate electricity.
At Ivanpah, the sun's ray's are redirected from a sea of more than 300,000 mirrors on the desert surface below to hit water filled boilers atop three 459-foot "power towers." Temperatures near the towers can climb to 800 degrees, which causes the water to produce steam that turns turbines which generate energy.
All told, the facility at Ivanpah generates enough electricity to power 140,000 homes and eliminates carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 72,000 vehicles a year, according to a press release from Bright Source Energy, one of the trio of investors behind the solar plant.
That sort of renewable energy source might seem like a triumph for the environment, but the same super-heated skyscrapers that generate renewable electricity are also taking a toll on wildlife in the area.
According to the Associated Press, up to 28,000 birds per year might be meeting an early death after burning up in the focused beams of sunlight, with birds dying at a rate of one bird every two minutes. The burned-up birds are being dubbed "streamers," after the poof of smoke produced by the igniting birds.
A report by the USFWS states that most of the birds are dying from various levels of exposure to "solar flux" which causes "singeing of feathers."
"Severe singeing of flight feathers caused catastrophic loss of flying ability, leading to death by impact with the ground or other objects," the report states. "Less severe singeing led to impairment of flight capability, reducing ability to forage and evade predators, leading to starvation or predation."
A quasi-food chain is being established around the solar plant, with predators eating birds and bats that burn up in the plant's solar rays chasing after insects which are attracted to the bright light from the sun's reflected rays. That prompted wildlife officials to refer to Ivanpah as a "mega-trap" for wildlife.
Unfortunately, the USFWS doesn't yet know the full extent of the solar facility's impact on bird populations, and is calling for a full year study of the death toll at the site before the plant's operators are allowed to construct an even bigger "power tower" solar plant between Joshua Tree National Park and the California-Arizona border, the Associated Press reports.
The proposed facility would have a power tower nearly twice the size of the ones found at Ivanpah and is located in an area with more than 100 species of birds, including protected species like golden eagles and peregrine falcons. Officials estimate that if the plant were built it would be nearly four times deadly to avian species than the solar plant at Ivanpah.
A spokesperson for NRG Solar, another one of the companies behind Ivanpah told the Associated Press that "we take this issue very seriously." So far, the only remedy appears to be cash. BrightSource has anted up $1.8 million to compensate for bird deaths and the trio of companies behind the project is looking into potential solutions to stop wildlife from colliding with the solar plant.
Them’s good eatin’...
Next, build a wind farm immediately adjacent to the solar farm. Then, build a giant wok at the solar farm...
Not surprising ... Actions/Consequences ... can never have one without the other.
All they need is some Cajun seasoning to go with the blackened bird.
I just wonder how many billions of taxpayer dollars it took to get this boondoggle up and running.
Bad enough the poor creatures are diced & julienned by wind turbines, now this ??
Calling PETA .... (People Eating Tasty Avians)
New Econut/Audubon motto: Birds...we don’t need no steenkin’ birds!
The left doesn’t care. They will blame it on global warming.
BTW, I could have told them this would happen, but they were too stupid to ask.
Here is an idea for public participation executions of condemned criminals.
Everybody bring a mirror to a stadium...stake the condemned to the middle of the field.
Everybody adds a degree or so.
Then various sections can shine their lights on other sections. Bring sunglasses, or perhaps welding goggles.
Yawn.
big deal
Bird Zappers...
I like it. Sort of “it takes a village to fry a convict”.
CC
There was a facility like this in California that eventually closed down. I thought they were not building facilities like this any more due to inefficiency in generation?
You or I can be fined or arrested for having an eagle feather, but Obama’s “green” energy buddies and donors with their wind and solar farms can kill thousands of protected birds with impunity.
They should change the name to Icarus Energy.
I really did LOL. Welding goggles, great.
This bird kill should have been totally predictable. I wonder who approved the EIS for this project and if they were “encouraged” to do so by higher-ups?
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