World’s Largest Solar Plant Is Open, But Its Mirrors Scorch Birds

[Purveyor]

The world’s largest solar plant is officially online in the Mojave desert — and it is causing some dismay.

That’s because the technology the $2.2 billion Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station uses could be a threat to wildlife — it generates heat so intense there’s growing evidence it is scorching birds, according to The Wall Street Journal.

--CLIP
The technology of the CSPs involves focusing sunlight onto boilers. The steam generated turns a turbine, which generates electricity. Using the sun is the innovation here.

The intense heat the mirrors generate appear to be scorching birds that fly over the area. Temperatures can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oakland-based BrightSource Energy has reported finding dozens of dead birds over the past several months as workers were testing the plant, the newspaper said. Some appeared to have singed or burned feathers, it said, citing federal biologists and documents filed with California’s energy commission.

MORE...

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/energy-ticker/2014/02/13/worlds-largest-solar-plant-is-open-but-its-mirrors-scorch-birds/

[jberryhill]

1. Maybe they can build a roof over it

[greytdemocrat]

2. Adapt or fry...

[Salviati]

3. How many birds would a 380 MW coal fired plant kill?

Global climate change will kill more than dozens of birds.

[Rex]

4. You would think birds would try and avoid flying into 1000 degree weather.

nt.

[pediatricmedic]

15. How would they do that?

Considering they can't actually see the thermal energy. They would not realize they were in it till they start burning.

[Rex]

17. It starts getting hotter as you get closer?

I doubt they can see the heat, but how can they not feel it getting hotter?

[NightWatcher]

5. make a noise that the birds find unpleasant near the plant

[Viking12]

6. What? A FOX/WSJ article that exaggerates the mild drawbacks of solar?

They wouldn't do that, would they?

[ManiacJoe]

7. If they went with a liquid that has a lower boiling point

they would not need all those mirrors.

[Salviati]

16. They would also have a much less efficient generator

The maximum efficiency is limited by the ratio of the high temperature of the working fluid to it's exhaust temperature. The lowest possible exhaust temperature is pretty much fixed by the ambient temperature, so lowering the high end temperature would lower the efficiency of converting the heat collected to useful work.

[solarhydrocan]

8. Germany doesn't have this problem

Solarpark Neuhardenberg



Solarpark Finsterwald



Solarpark Kothen



Solarpark Lieberose



Solarpark Senftenberg

Maybe we should hire some Germans. They seem to know what they're doing.

Solar power in Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany

Germany is the world's top photovoltaics (PV) installer, with a solar PV capacity of 35.082 gigawatts (GW) at the end of September 2013. The German new solar PV installations increased by about 7.6 GW in 2012, and solar PV provided 18 TWh (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity in 2011, about 3% of total electricity. Some market analysts expect this could reach 25 percent by 2050. Germany has a goal of producing 35% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050.

Germany set a world record for solar power production with 24.0 GW produced at midday on July 21, 2013. Approximately 1.3–1.4 million solar power systems helped to set this record

[Purveyor]

10. I don't think the Germans are using mirrors here are they? eom

[Cleita]

11. It seems an environmental impact study was missing

from the initial plans.

What else didn't they think about?

[Owl]

12. Wow! Incredible PV arrays!

[Union Scribe]

13. PV collectors are different from CSP nt

[Luminous Animal]

9. In the US, up to a billion birds die from crashing into windows...

Between 365 and 988 million birds die annually from crashing into windows in the U.S., according to a new report. Other estimates put that number as high as 1 billion. Most bird collision deaths don’t occur on skyscrapers but with the windows of smaller structures. Buildings four to 11 stories high account for 56 percent of the deaths, according to an Oklahoma State University study. Residences account for 44 percent of bird collisions, and skyscrapers cause fewer than 1 percent. A small building kills only a few birds a year compared with the 24 that die due to a single skyscraper, but the United States has 15.1 million low-rise structures and 122.9 million small homes but only 21,000 skyscrapers.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/windows-kill-a-billion-birds-a-year.html#ixzz2tFVv2MVN

[madokie]

14. I got in my truck on day to each lunch

I'd left the driver side door window down and when I got in I seen a blue bird laying on its back in the seat. At first I though what the heck then I seen the spot on the window where it had hit it. It had flown through the open driver side door only to hit the rolled up passenger side door window.
I was getting ready for work one day at home and I heard something hit what sounded like the window and when I looked out I didn't see anything so I didn't give it much thought until I went out to get in my vehicle to go to work and there laying on the grass under the window where I thought I'd heard something hit it was a mockingbird, dead.
From those two incidences I do know that birds do fly into windows and commit hari-kari