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California Solar Plant Kills 30 Birds an Hour
The workers call them “streamers.” Hapless birds that fly over a massive California solar array, only to be immolated in midair, leaving a brief plume of smoke and a medium-well carcass.
BrightSource Energy’s state-of-the-art plant in the Mojave Desert is the largest solar thermal power plant on earth — and the deadliest.
Federal wildlife officials counted an average of one “streamer” every two minutes. The energy company estimates that only 1,000 birds are scorched each year, while a prominent environmental group puts the number at 28,000.
Federal and state biologists call the number of deaths significant, based on sightings of birds getting singed and falling, and on retrieval of carcasses with feathers charred too severely for flight.
Ivanpah officials dispute the source of the so-called streamers, saying at least some of the puffs of smoke mark insects and bits of airborne trash being ignited by the solar rays.
Wildlife officials who witnessed the phenomena say many of the clouds of smoke were too big to come from anything but a bird, and they add that they saw “birds entering the solar flux and igniting, consequently become a streamer.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials say they want a death toll for a full year of operation.
Given the apparent scale of bird deaths at Ivanpah, authorities should thoroughly track bird kills there for a year, including during annual migratory seasons, before granting any more permits for that kind of solar technology, said [Garry] George, of the Audubon Society.
The facility has concerned environmentalists in the past, as its construction bladed over 3,500 acres of virgin desert. Being California, the state government required BrightSource to relocate a bunch of desert gopher tortoises to the tune of $22 million. The installation also endangers pilots flying the busy Los Angeles–Las Vegas corridor; they can be dazzled by the intense light.
It remains to be seen if regulators will stop the plant’s operation, but at least the world’s largest bug zapper should educate environmentalists and green energy boosters.
For too long, the public has been told that energy production is less a matter of physics than one of morality. Renewable energy like solar and wind are sold as “good” while reliable energy sources like oil and coal are “evil.” Methods like hydroelectric, nuclear and natural gas all were initially sold as clean and green, but became demonized the instant they turned a profit or revealed unintended consequences.
Per Thomas Sowell, “there are no solutions, only trade-offs.” Oil and coal are dirty, but they’re cheap and efficient. Dams are dangerous to build, but reliable and prevent flooding downstream. They also create man-made reservoirs, which environmentalists alternately love and hate.
Nuclear produces vast amounts of energy and emits only water vapor, but holds the risk of radiation and long-term storage. Currently, solar and wind produce minimal energy at high cost — both in financial terms and, apparently, avian longevity rates. Yet both are renewable and are a great option for certain applications (especially off-the-grid living).
Hopefully, BrightSource Energy will solve the “streamer” issue and help make solar a viable energy source for the future. But all energy consumers should heed the advice of expert Thomas Conroy:
Published in GeneralWhen it comes to powering the country’s grids, “diversity of technology … is critical,” Conroy said. “Nobody should be arguing let’s be all coal, all solar,” all wind, or all nuclear. “And every one of those technologies has a long list of pros and cons.”
Except birds.
Well, if the ornithicide is sustainable, I suppose it’s all right. Unless, of course, they emit carbon when they are flash-fried.
And cats who prefer their birds raw.
The wind turbans are also contributing. Estimated 573,00 birds and 888,000 bats in 2012. Oh yeah, in 2011 the feds prosecuted seven oil companies for 28 bird deaths in oil waste pits.
Man, if only there was a mechanism by which animals could adapt to new adversities within the environment. Then we wouldn’t have to mollycoddle them so much.
I once sat through a talk given by a scientist studying the diverse species of salmon that live in the rivers of Western America. When we started creating hydroelectric dams we altered the river patterns that these fish had been adapted to, leading to poor spawning rates. Oddly enough after several generations the fish population became mostly dominated by adults more suited to the new spawning conditions and numbers began to swell. By this time though we had grown a conscience and decided to repent our river altering ways. The end result is that once again the fish were ill suited to the new “old” conditions. The irony of the situation seemed lost on him and others who worried about preserving those fish.
I say let the birds figure out how not to get fired it’s their problem after all.
Wind turbans?
Same thing happened to Icarus.
Or maybe, rather than GLOBAL, this is a result of extremely LOCAL warming.
That’s the wildest roasted bird story I have heard of since Operation Blue Peacock. Of course, since that weapon was never deployed, no chickens ever got flash-fried as described above.
(The entry had a link to the Strategy & Tactics magazine in which my article on the project appeared. Go to page 33.)
Seawriter
Actually. if I am not mistaken the problem of the birds is not that they are flying too high but rather too low.
The only pro for a windmill is the fact it is as capable as a wind sail in producing energy. And as dependable. There is a good reason the shipping industry went from sails to steam and fossil fuels.
If we had large solar arrays in orbit and beamed the power back to earth as microwaves, there would be no bird deaths.
The sun never sets up there, and there is never any weather blocking the sun either.
John & Jon,
Here here, let’s ban all that darn nuclear and coal this minute. Let’s stop that fracking too. No one’s found anything wrong about it but I’m sure they will. You know those battery plants are real polluters too. Let’s command the engineers to invent battery-less electric cars. If they won’t let’s stop all that nonsense. Gasoline simple, we’ll tax it into oblivion. When we make it really really expensive why surely someone will come up with something else. Something renewable or maybe just really cool like flubber!
You know what the problem is? It’s all that straight line thinking. Who says the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That Euclid was probably a Republican! I think we should just declare that a meandering curve is the shortest distance between two points. Sure get Congress to pass a law. Well if they won’t do it how about a Supreme Court decision in favor of the meandering curve. If they won’t do it the President has a pen and a phone.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. (Hey listen me I’ve been standing here waiting for myself for hours. At least you could have texted me! Some alter ego you turned out to be.)
GoooGibbleGabbleBlatterBurpBaaaarrrrrfffff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards,
Jim
Saber-toothed sickos.
Those who complain the loudest about decreasing natural habitats, and then without a moment’s thought cheer the loudest for renewable sources of energy, never really see the big picture and the consequences thereof. Probably because both are feel good positions that need no rationalization other than that.
The fact that so much land is required for solar – and much more for wind – does not enter their equation (not to mention that each requires conventional power backup sources). And now the solar installation destruction of huge numbers of birds. We knew about the wind turbines and EPA’s 30-year waiver given to those operators. Will solar installation operators get the same preferential treatment – even if a reasonable solution is found (which assuredly won’t be 100%)?
If so, will people finally begin to think rationally about trade-offs with respect to viable energy sources?
Jon (or anyone):
Do you know where they are getting the water to clean those puppies at the Mojave Desert installation? Do they truck it in or were water mains put in? I understand that weekly washings are needed for optimal efficiency. That plus a bi-monthly dousing with special chemicals. And is that water that might have been used for the farmers in the Central Valley? Hmmm. Delta smelt, salmon, and (now possibly) solar. Those farmers haven’t a chance.
I have the solution:
Just don’t try to make it out of straw.
(I got a couple of good shots of this installation, which you can see here:
http://www.pbase.com/pderocco/image/153978187/original
http://www.pbase.com/pderocco/image/153978186/original)
I would think they’d get the water from the water table. Ivanpah is a desert sink, so there’s water down there. If they wash the mirrors at night, and let the water drain back into the ground, they’d only lose a fraction to evaporation, and the bulk would return to the water table. Dunno what that fraction actually is, though.
And these people are worried about DDT?
The landfills on Cape Cod where I live had a problem with seagulls. The landfill managers found that stringing a grid of clear fishing line across the landfill area kept the birds out. Then when the town of Orleans had a similar problem with cormorants congregating and multiplying and consequently polluting a local estuary, the town of Orleans tried the same clear string approach, and it worked there too.
Maybe the solar panel fields will have to be smaller so that bird deterrents can be built into the site designs.
I just think we have too many birds anyway.
What an outrage. I say burn the environmental whackos. We can use less of them. Maybe they’ll go extinct.
Except for Liquid Thorium Fluoride Reactors.
You’re despicable!
Think how useful this device could be for punishing apostates from the Church of Gaia. Much more environmentally friendly than the old-fashioned executioner’s pyre.
Seawriter.
Oh no, not 3,500 acres of virgin desert! Otherwise known as wasteland.
Lets see.
If the birds learn to fly at night, the prodigy in the desert won’t affect them. However should the prodigy in the desert learn to work at all hours, sun or no, then we’ll have electrical service at all hours, such as at night when people turn on lights and fire up the telly. It will continue to be tough on birds but…. that’s life.
If the wind learns to blow all the time, and the big bladed wind turbines can be kept on line all the time, then the big bladed wind turbines will provide electrical service at all hours, such as when the wind is not blowing for them but when we need electricity to flow into our homes and businesses.
And if the birds can learn not to fly into the wind turbine blades, then we won’t have problems with dead birds littering the pristine landscape around that wonderful albeit limited technology. Maybe the birds can learn to fly through the area when the wind is not blowing.
Green, green, green. Environment, environment, environment. Save the Earth! Why do you hate nature?
Ahem – Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!
Is it possible that the solar and wind industries can add a food function such as “flash-fried bird” or “cut and flash frozen bird cuisine” and take advantage of this particular opportunity?
Maybe sell feathers for stuffing pillows and down comforters?
Wishbones for people looking for a change in their luck? Narrow niche but perhaps through specialty stores.
Maybe collect the carcasses and offer them for rich in ingredients fertilizer? Given the quantities being tossed around there should be a market for this. Maybe turn the desert into Iowa or Nebraska and grow things besides cacti and tumbleweeds.
One is reminded that if all one has is lemons, then one is supposed to make lemonade.
Hey now listen. That water is helping the latest umteenth iteration of a weak technology that only exists because of massive subsidy. How dare some farmer trying to run an actual viable business glamm on to that water.
What do they think they are doing anyway. Trying to feed people?! Don’t get in the way of phony baloney feel good worthless technology. Why without it where would we get phony baloney feel good worthless politicians from.
Regards,
Jim