Solar plants SCORCH birds in midair

[bobm]

Associated press- Ivanpah Dry Lake, Cal. ... " The $2.2 Billion plant, which launched in February, is at Ivanpah Dry Lake near the Cal.- Nevada border.... More than 300,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect solar rays onto three boiler towers each looming up to 40 stories high. The water inside is heated to produce steam, which turns turbines that generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes. Sun rays sent up by the field of mirrors are bright enough to dazzle pilots flying in and out of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a "mega-trap" for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their death in the intensely focused light rays....Federal wildlife investigators ... watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one " streamer" every two minutes... estimating up to 28,000 "streamers" per year. ... The bird kills mark the latest instance in which the quest for clean energy sometimes has inadvertent environmental harm. Solar farms have been criticized for their impacts on desert tortoises, and wind farms have killed birds, including numerous raptors. ... US Fish and Wildlife Service officials warned Cal. this month that the power-tower style of solar technology holds " the highest lethality potential" of the many solar projects burgeoning in the deserts of California. ... etc. "

 

[Smart Red]

Such is the problem with the developing energy technologies. A lot of bugs (and birds) to work out for them to be effective.

 

[baymule]

It would be better if solar was cheap enough for most families to have solar, grid tied. If we generated a lot of our own energy, it would cut our costs! Or, we just could open up the coal again and put people back to work.....but I digress.....

 

[thistlebloom]

Now if we could just convince turkeys to fly over at Thanksgiving....

 

[baymule]

Now if we could just convince turkeys to fly over at Thanksgiving....

And stuff themselves?

 

[bobm]

Note the $ 2.2 BILLION price tag and they want to build a bigger and better one ... this, on top of the failed Cal. solar panel production plant costing many millions funded by congress at our fearless leader's urging to faize out the costly poluteing fossil and nuclear fuels. ( Don't forget the sun is a NUCLEAR REACTION ON A LARGE SCALE , just farther away than a nuclear plant actually is from your home . And the sun is the original source of fossil fuels ). With a bird going down in flames every 2 minutes -that's 28,000 +/- dead streamer birds lost per year at this one solar plant and countless raptors being sliced and diced by wind turbines per year ... where are the bleeding hearts' vociferous complaints ? Or does the words environmentally friendly clean solar energy trump living creatures lives ?

 

[baymule]

Solar and wind farms should not be subsidized by the taxpayer. Let them stand or fall on their own merit.

Dead birds don't cause global warming, bob. It's all about "feel good" politics.

 

[Smart Red]

Sure, eliminate farms in the West by blocking their water rights to save a small (snail darter) fish, but it's okay to eliminate a rare or endangered bird or two with "green" energy.

 

[bobm]

Red, not only that , but a few years ago,the environmentalists won a law suit in Cal. to restore the salmon run in the San Juaquin River in the Central Valley of Cal.that has been DRY for about 80 years now, thereby now causing crop failures due to lack of irrigation water as that irrigation water is now diverted to the dry riverbed and seeping into deep aquifers and slowly returning some of the most productive irrigated farm crop and orchard land in the county and now this entire area is returning to desert dry land like it once was, but WITHOUT any salmon. The farm lands have lost a huge amount of their value. Now, farm workers are mostly unemployed ( about 50 +/- % unemployment rate and receive unemployment as well as welfare and wic checks that the tax payers are now forced to pay with ever higher property and income taxes. Others have abandoned their homes ( moved to big cities and competing for all manner of our jobs) and now one can see entire subdivisions vacant and overgrown with weeds. Oh yea, not to mention much higher grocery prices for imported food stuffs for one and all. How about that for "feel good" politics.

 

[Smart Red]

Sounds about right! I stopped contributing to one environmental group when three young firefighters died, in part, because the airplanes were not allowed to take water from the nearest lake -- protecting wildlife at human expense -- and the group publicized how they stopped water dipping and saved the fish.