True, but the mirrors do not focus 100% of their rays on the tower. There is always some divergence of the light that gets past the tower, as seen below.
It's not any worse than the sun reflecting off a body of water, however.
Posted on 07/09/2014 4:33:28 PM PDT by RightGeek
For proponents of renewable energy, it seems like every time a technology is primed to save the world, it gets dogged by some ironic bit of environmental unpleasantness. Wind turbines can be dangerous to birds and bats. Biofuels require so much land, fertilizer, and water that they may use more energy to produce than they provide. Hydropower dams screw up a whole lot of river habitat and stop fish from spawning.
The latest on this list of “dark green” technologies is thermal solar power, which is coming into vogue in the southern California desert.
[snip]
U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees and energy company staff found 233 birds of 71 different species at three California solar facilities—Ivanpah, Genesis, and Desert Sunlight—during random surveys over two years. That’s not a huge number of birds (though the limited scope of the collections means it’s just a fraction of the actual deaths), but what’s shocking is the way some of these birds are dying: They are literally being burned alive, in midair.
[snip]
Birds came to feed on the insects, and bigger birds came to feed on the insect-eaters. When birds flew into the hottest areas, observers saw them emit streams of smoke from their feathers. On-the-ground staff found birds with their flight feathers burned away, some still alive but unable to fly. During their visit to Ivanpah, the report states, USFWS staff saw birds burn in midair “every two minutes.”
[snip]
Researchers found an unusually high number of water birds dead at the Desert Sunlight facility. These birds, including grebes, herons, ducks, and even pelicans, died not from the heat but from blunt force trauma. The cause was clear, as stated in the report: “A desert environment punctuated by a large expanse of reflective, blue panels may be reminiscent of a large body of water.”
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
El Condor Pizza!
Didn’t they do an “Environmental Impact Study?” The EPA isn’t gonna like this!
This is so sick. These people are going to have a very bad day of judgment when they face God and are asked how they cared for the earth. I think that God is not amused that His creatures are treated as such. It’s one thing to kill to eat, but it’s totally different to callously kill thousands of wildlife like this, but then these same people see nothing wrong with exterminating babies, either.
Pelican, it’s what’s for dinner.
We should use the biofuel known as oil.
We cook ‘em, the turbines chop them up. We could start a “Green Bird” franchise!
The purpose of renewable energy is to protect the environment. In order to protect the environment we must kill it.
You know the mirrors move to keep the focus on the tower. A plane would have to fly between the mirrors and the tower.
I missed the part where he recommends what power sources to use if solar isn’t good enough for him anymore...
True, but the mirrors do not focus 100% of their rays on the tower. There is always some divergence of the light that gets past the tower, as seen below.
It's not any worse than the sun reflecting off a body of water, however.
The focus isn’t precise. A lot of light goes past the
tower. I’ve seen the one near Primm as I passed on I-15.
Lots of scatter.
“Yup, go back to living in grass huts and caves.”
Some of you guys for sure but not me. I’m going to be one of the extra special elite who’ll live in great style planning the lives of the ‘little people’. Much more fun than grass huts and caves.
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