Does World’s Largest Solar Farm Burn Birds That Fly Over It?
Source: odditycentral.com
Environmentalists might swear by solar energy, but it turns out that the alternative source has its pitfalls too. Ivanpah, a giant solar farm in California’s Mohave Desert, is actually producing such high levels of heat that birds flying over it are burning to death.The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System that opened last Thursday is a joint effort by NRG Energy Inc., Google Inc. and BrightSource Energy. It can produce electricity that is sufficient to power 140,000 homes. The project is supposed to be the beginning for the United States’ emerging solar industry. It uses a technology that is different and more expensive to build than a similar-sized conventional solar power plant.
The Ivanpah site is located 45 miles southwest of Las Vegas, with virtually unbroken sunshine for most part of the year. It is also close to transmission lines that carry power to consumers. The project makes use of technology called solar-thermal – more than 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors (each roughly the size of a garage door) reflect sunlight to boilers on top of 450-foot towers. The sun’s power heats the water in the boilers’ tubes and the steam drives turbines to create electricity.
Unfortunately, Ivanpah is now being dubbed the ‘$2.2 Billion Bird-Scorching Solar Project’ by various environmental groups. The mirrors actually appears to be scorching birds that fly through the intense heat surrounding the towers, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Compliance documents released by BrightSource Energy last year indicated that dozens of dead birds were found at the plant over the past several months, during the testing phase. Federal biologists have noticed that these birds appeared to have singed or burnt feathers. The dead birds included two hawks, four nighthawks, a grebe, a peregrine falcon and several sparrows.
Regulators at the plant said they anticipated that some birds would be killed once the plant started operating. But they certainly didn’t expect for so many to die during construction and testing.
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