Posted on 11/14/2013 10:35:49 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Two months ago, 34 birds were found dead or injured on the site of the Ivanpah solar plant owned by BrightSource Energy in east San Bernardino County, California. Almost half suffered from singed feathers after running afoul of the plant’s reflected beams of sunlight, according to a report from The Desert Sun. This was not an isolated incident: another 19 were found dead at the 500-megawatt Desert Sunlight plant, which is also located in California.
So what’s going on here? Why are birds dropping like their winged-brethren, flies, around these plants and what can we do?
The Californian desert has become a popular place to build solar energy plants because of the abundant space and, of course, the sun. However, the region also serves as one of the four major north-to-south trajectories for migratory birds: the Pacific Flyway. So while it seems like an ideal locale, birds who fly over these structures face some new and unusual hazards.
When it comes to death by solar farm, birds typically die in one of two ways. In the first, the glimmering sheer of solar panels might trick birds into thinking they are actually part of a body of water. And so the birds, especially waterfowl in this scenario, dive towards the panels, looking for moisture and food, only to find themselves, bones broken, dying in the middle of the arid California sand.
Blunt force trauma aside, others feel the wrath of the harnessed sunlight. At the right (or really, wrong) angle, the potent radiation bouncing off solar mirror’s are enough to burn a bird’s fragile wings, abruptly sending the creature downward towards the ground and impending death. They’re like tragic avian Icaruses, except without an easily digestible moral lesson behind their fatal crashes.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...
Can we just throw salt, pepper and sage into the wind and then sit down and eat?
Rachel Carson is responsible for the deaths of more people than anyone else in history.
Bird egg shells mattered more than malaria victims.
Indeed. Malaria was almost a thing of the past like Polio.
Her book was full of BS, but the ban still goes on.
When I was given that book to read as a kid, we could still run behind the DDT mosquito fogger Jeep at the Chessie bay campgrounds on vacation.
None of us died.
Wish I could say the same for the millions of little kids who had no fogger Jeeps to follow.
Even at that tender age, I called BS.
And now we have such fun little zoonoses things as West Nile, Ehrlichiosis and Lyme to enjoy.
Lucky us.
This is going to infuriate the hippies and peta folks in Austin. They invested several millions in a solar power plant east of Austin in the Webberville area.
Headline...Solar plants remove waxy build up, keep
floors sparkling like new.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.. LOrdy help them poor birdies flying thru the a wind mills of muh mind.
Female and juvenile birds hardest hit.
Back in 1977 I was visiting Sandia Labs at Kirkland AFB in New Mexico and observe a solar power test. In the test there were a series of mirrors that where to be focused on the top of a tower to concentrate heat. As part of the test, all the mirrors were focused at a point just to the right of the tower before all being moved to the tower. During that short period a bird made the mistake of flying into the focal point – instant flash fried. Not sure I’ll ever forget that.
I visited there a couple times for business. They had some pretty cool contraptions.
Who knows, we may yet live to see Tesla fried chicken dropping on our platters yet.
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