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.
The site encompasses over 3,500 acres.
Now, consider that for the amount of power created (392 MW).
A recent Combined Cycle Natural Gas plant, that will produce over 800 MW, is situated on 20 acres.
Who is the $1.8 million going to? The birds’ next of kin?
Sounds more like a homo rights organization ...
Fines and jailtime for all the libtards behind this project!
No concern shown for the poor flying insects that get fried? These Greens are specie-ist bigots!!!
I certainly recall the leftist BS about caribou and later when the pipeline was in operation seeing caribou leaning on it in real cold weather.
Seriously, who cleans all those mirrors? I hope they are using something environmentally friendly and not Windex.
Environazis always busy creating new ways to murder wildlife. Why do they hate birds so much?
And we should care about this, when all of the collected electricity from the solar plant has helped keep the living room light on for 10 seconds in Barbara Boxer’s house? Who’s more important to us, Boxer or a bunch of winged rodents?
I wonder how it will affect the behavior of the predators and carrion eaters for them to become acclimated to cooked meat.
If they run out of roast birds will they start raiding backyard barbecues in residential areas?
I think I see the plot of a bad horror movie in there somewhere...
That’s still about 131,000 birds a year, not 28,000.
If they did, they'd be working on developing a way to collect the heat released when the birds are incinerated so it can be used to generate steam, instead of just being released in to the atmosphere.
;-)
This should be GREAT for the local coyote population.
Yeah, I got 129,390 from just a rough estimate based on average seasonal daylight hours.
So I guess they use the same mathematicians the government uses for budget estimates. The most dishonest and stupid ones they can find.
Clearly it is time to switch to a new environmentally friendly low cost energy source.
I propose building a new power plant that generates energy by burning unicorn farts. It will only cost a few billion dollars in tax money to get it up and running.
They should have foreseen this before building this junk. It pains me to think of the birds dying this painful and unnecessary death. Typical libtards. They do something to supposedly solve a problem and NEVER EVER think of the repercussions of their actions.
Reminds me of the “ritualized” tics of someone with severe OCD. They don’t know why they MUST do it, only that by gum they’re singlehandedly saving the world by doing it!
“But the sun only shines during the day.”
I’m not a bird expert, and don’t know their nocturnal habits - probably varies by species - but even if most are nest-bound at night, the figure would still be way off of the two-birds-a-minute figure.
They claim they are losing 2 birds per minute. Then they claim that bird losses are 28,000 per year.
Flip the point of view around:
They are inadvertently admitting that the plant is only running for 14,000 minutes per year.
Or an average around 38 minutes per day.
(unless I screwed up my math - but I think my point is clear now)
In other words, this thing is a monumental failure.
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