Emerging solar plants scorch birds in mid-air
Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.These powerful solar panels are literally frying birds right out of the air. If they could just ratchet the heat up another hundred degrees or so, they could open the world's freshest poultry restaurant. So, we have windmills that turn bald eagles and condor into chicken of the plains, and now we have the Great Migratory Bird Microwave solar power.
Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.
Yeah, green energy. Lots of thought went into saving the environment, didn't it? 28,000 birds a year, that's the high estimate of the number killed by this one facility. I wonder how this compares to, say, KFC? I mean, I'm sure KFC uses more animals, but they're *using* the animals, not causing thousands of deaths a year as a byproduct.
I guess the old saying really is true: You *do* need to break a few eggs to make an omelet...
That is all.
9 comments:
Fried goose to go... :-)
If they really are migratory birds, then the facility needs to pony up $500 per bird. (See Migratory Bird Protection Treaty, proposed under Teddy Roosevelt in 1901 and ratified under Reagan in 1985)
But on the other hand, we have an actual death ray.
Joseph in IL
Wonder how much the heat they generate contributes to "Climate Change"? Besides killing birds that is.
Not panels, reflectors, this is one of the liquid sodium or melted salt style solar concentrator systems.
Nice thing is they are more cost efficient long term, bad thing is yeah they can fry a chicken in Kentucky if ya aim em wrong :-)
Normal (even high power) solar panels though pose no harm to birds or by standers unless they run into them or the panels fall on em.
It wouldn't be so bad if the power plant operators would quit hanging bird feeders near the beam.
On the plus side, they won't have to lie about the place heating up anymore!
Joseph, "green energy' producers get an exemption from the Migratory Bird Act and other wildlife regulations. Just as bad, activists have been caught at wind farms picking up the dead bald and golden eagles, and other birds and bats, to hide them so anti-turbine folks won't use them as evidence. It's criminal, pathetic, immoral, and I'm getting very tired of the foolishness.
LittleREd1
I kinda remember a song about solar power from way back when, "Home on LaGrange"...
Solar Power's sublime,
So no one will mind,
If we cook the occasional goose...
Dave H. -- the shininess of the reflectors *is* the bird feeder.
Attracts not only the bird's attention, but every bug in line of sight and flying distance.
It's hunting with a death ray over bait. . . :-)
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