World's largest solar plant kills overflying birds.. Something I never considered !

The newly opened Ivanpah solar planet is joint-owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy and Google. The plant is located on federal land along the border between California and Nevada.

However, according to compliance documents released by developer BrightSource Energy last year, dozens of birds were found injured at the site during the building stage.

Although solar energy is cleaner than fossil fuels, environmentalists have been protesting the new solar plant because it has been killing migrating birds.

In another article I read a couple of days ago it said the temps the birds try to fly through can approach 1000 Fahrenheit.. Instant crispy critter !
intellihub.com...

reply to post by 727Sky


Just to play devils advocate a second, do you think if they get some giant fans and bags of herbs and seasoning we can have the worlds largest oven?


Is the 1000 c temp gauge accurate? If so, you would think that would have an effect on local weather at the the very least......

reply to post by Flavian


Not C but F either way I would assume the birds will have to fly through the cone or focal point... How big that is I dunno? The other article had pics of dead birds with burned feathers but I do not remember where I saw the article?

I am sure an eco solution can be put in place. Such as using sonic deterrent etc.

Well I hope the animal rights activists don't call for it to be shut down. Killing animals other than for food is probably never good but consider how many deer are killed by automobiles each year. A lot of those are used for food but I see a lot along side the roads that are not.

Also just watched this very minute, "Zero hour" about the chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion. So a few dead birds is a small price to pay to bring alternative energies online.

Didn't realize two of the reactors at chernobyl are still operating. At least in 2004 when the film was made.

Very interesting. Another example of humans altering the environment and bringing unintended consequences, as usual. In this case I would think the engineers would have considered placement of a solar plant in the path of any bird migration and choose a different site.

For wind turbines bird migratory paths are considered, not saying wind power is a better solution though.

tinner07
Well I hope the animal rights activists don't call for it to be shut down. Killing animals other than for food is probably never good but consider how many deer are killed by automobiles each year. A lot of those are used for food but I see a lot along side the roads that are not.

Also just watched this very minute, "Zero hour" about the chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion. So a few dead birds is a small price to pay to bring alternative energies online.

Didn't realize two of the reactors at chernobyl are still operating. At least in 2004 when the film was made.

A sonic bird scarer or some other way to get rid of the poor, cute little birdies will be found, but frankly even if it doesn't, the alternative is more fossil fuels, the consequences of using can damage and injure just as many bird lovers' kids as it does the kids from people who couldn't give a toss if a flock of birds a day flew into the solar focal point and were roasted.

Gotta weigh up the pros and cons in this world.

And i'm with the 'id rather think of people than bloody birds' camp.

I hope the plant owners/operators have enough migratory bird stamps to cover the killings.

Funny how true the old saying "kill one man it's murder, kill a million it's a statistic" is.

Kill one migratory bird without proper permits and stamp and you're losing your license and facing a fine and/or jail time.

Kill a few hundred or more and it's just a statistic.

Criminal equivalent of too big to fail I suppose.

Spy on your neighbor and you're getting charged with a half dozen crimes. Spy on the world and you're lauded as an all-loving compassionate man who cares for the safety of others.

The earth gets a lot of its energy from the sun. If we suck up that energy with lots of solar plants then im sure it will have a larger effect of the environment in some way.

Wow so kind of you sir..your concern now already seen by million poeple my friend..good job hope they find win win solution..

My opinion is we build some kind of soft strong net and build a post to one who care about the bird, so if any bird hurt they can cure and help..
What do you say? Just my opinion

The title seems misleading since nowhere in the article does it mention scorched birds. All it says is that birds were found injured during the construction of the plant.

It often seems the case that we work on such grand scales that the Law of Unforseen Consequences kicks in.

For example, there was an honourable attempt to give humanity a healthier existence and it led to stronger bugs and drug-resistant bacteria. We've extended mortality in the Western world and are now struggling to cope with an ageing population. So it goes...

'Dozens' of birds in a year isn't a lot for a building site of that size. I bet there are cat-owners with higher death-counts in their gardens! Whatever the case, we'll always see nature changing when something changes the environment. The recent wolves thread exemplifies the point so I'll leave it at that.

daskakik
The title seems misleading since nowhere in the article does it mention scorched birds. All it says is that birds were found injured during the construction of the plant.

I agree however the other article (which I have been trying to find!! ) was much more inflammatory... Still looking !

People find anythign to moan about. I'm sure some people just want the human race to go back to cave drawing, only eat seeds and no electrical power.

No matter what, people moan about something;
Uranium Fissile - Could cause Meltdowns.
Hydro - OMG Upstream habits, the FISHES!
Wind Power - Mass murder of Seagulls - SAVE THE BIRDS!
Bio-Fuel- OMG think about all that food been wasted
Fossil - Fracking the water!!!!


And now Solar power scorching the birds...

I understand that this is pretty bad, but In my opinion this is better than destroying our planet by throwing loads of # into the atmosphere. Like a previous poster said, I'm sure some kind of sonic sounds could be projected into the air to stop bird migrating over the panels.

reply to post by 727Sky

The PDF that is linked in the article shows 2 birds found with singed feathers. There's 3 that seemed to have died from slamming into some part of the plant.

I think the article is a bit alarmist.

PhoenixOD
The earth gets a lot of its energy from the sun. If we suck up that energy with lots of solar plants then im sure it will have a larger effect of the environment in some way.

I'm not sure you understand how this all works.

Look..the reality is this;

There are 7 billion living breathing Human beings on this planet, all trying to breathe clean air and run their appliances.

There is estimated to be around 400 Billion wild birds on this planet.

In comparison to bird numbers, we are the endangered species.

I think we should be more concerned with Human beings being irradiated from the inside out in areas of nuclear disaster and contamination, concerned with Human beings being subjected to toxic smog in their cities and with our environment being raped and destroyed to get at the fossil fuels lurking within and beneath before we start worrying too much about a handful of birds too stupid to know that flying into an oven is going to be a tad bad for them.

Perspective.

PhoenixOD
The earth gets a lot of its energy from the sun. If we suck up that energy with lots of solar plants then im sure it will have a larger effect of the environment in some way.

edit on 20-2-2014 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)

Are you saying that solar power somehow generates back out enough heat to harm something?

Are we all not thinking? the sun blasts down on us every day. Solar power is collecting the energy, not producing it.

Whatever the sun is putting out, solar power collects. It doesn't radiate it back out or somehow turn all the suns energy into external ambient heat.

the panels may get hot, but so does the ground.

I'd go out & Kill two birds with my bare hands if I knew i could produce energy for over 140,000 homes..From your link;

Yet this process also creates an extremely hot “thermal flux” around the tower, and biologists producing compliance reports for developer BrightSource Energy said that at least two dead birds found on the site in November last year were likely killed by “scorching”.

fgfghfg

edit on 20-2-2014 by n00bUK because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-2-2014 by n00bUK because: (no reason given)

reply to post by sn0rch


Nah...these plants aren't PV solar panels...it's the concentrator type, focused on a target to vapourise water to run turbines.

A great idea actually, bit like the principle of a kid with a magnifying glass focussing the sunlight and burning holes in leaves and stuff...only without the magnifying glass...uses mirrors instead.