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AP reports that wildlife investigators who watched as birds burn and fell at the Ivanpah Dry Lake Solar Tower Plant are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version until the full extent of the deaths can be assessed. Estimates per year now range from a low of about a thousand "streamers" by the plant operator to 28,000 by an expert for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group. Those statistics haven’t curbed the enthusiasm of the Obama administration for the solar-power plant, which granted Ivanpah a $1.6 billion federal loan guarantee. The deaths are "alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology," says Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. "There needs to be some caution." Federal wildlife officials say the plant 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.
The $2.2 billion plant at Ivanpah Dry Lake near the California-Nevada border is the world's biggest plant to employ so-called power towers. 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. While biologists say there is no known feasible way to curb the number of birds killed, the companies behind the projects say they are hoping to find one — studying whether lights, sounds or some other technology would scare them away, says Joseph Desmond, senior vice president at BrightSource Energy. Power-tower proponents are fighting to keep the deaths from forcing a pause in the building of new plants when they see the technology on the verge of becoming more affordable and accessible (PDF). When it comes to powering the country's grids, "diversity of technology ... is critical," says Thomas Conroy, a renewable-energy expert. "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."
(Score: 3) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 21 2014, @11:54AM
This smells a lot like the tactic fossil fuel companies have been using for years to combat wind farms, ie " Oh noes! Birds fly into wind turbines and get chopped to bits. Oh the humanity!" I'm sure it makes the MBAs at the coal and oil companies chuckle at their cocktail hours over how snarky that tactic is.
You would think they would come up with a different class of victims than birds for solar, but they are not terribly creative as a bunch.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @12:01PM
They're sticking with what works: a tactic that gets idiots to do all their work for them by parroting the lines all on their own, and not even asking for a paycheck for it like typical shills.
(Score: 3) by carguy on Thursday August 21 2014, @01:35PM
... by parroting the lines ...
I see what you did there.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by n1 on Thursday August 21 2014, @12:51PM
I'm at a loss to how some opponents of 'green' energy have a serious objection to the eyesores that are solar and wind farms. As if they're nostalgic for the beauty of oil wells, refineries and coal mines. Big Oil must be proud.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 21 2014, @01:37PM
Exactly. When Ted Kennedy and his wealthy neighbors on Cape Cod were fighting the offshore wind farm I thought the power company ought to have first proposed building a coal-burning plant in their midst, and then compromised by offering to build a wind farm instead.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday August 21 2014, @04:53PM
Ahh, but all that oil/coal/natural gas stuff was far far away in West Virginia or Western Pennsylvania or the Middle East or the Gulf Coast. Wind farms are going up in much nicer places, and Not In My Back Yard thinking takes over.
Personally I find windmills to be rather picturesque, but then again I'm not busy trying to joust with them. And solar panals on rooftops and over the top of parking lots (added bonus: parking lots are less rainy, windy, or baked in as much sunlight) just make perfect sense.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:50PM
Nope. The two most populous US states, are also the ones that had the most oil wells. Alaska in an interesting exception, but the trend is clearly the opposite direction.
An interesting historical tidbit:
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/photos-oil-extraction-in-socal-history-35788.html [kcet.org]
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:04PM
I find it interesting that the 'omg!! killing the wildlife' opponents to alternative industry seem to have no issue with vehicles and roads killing the criiters, but solar or wind is Critter Apocolypse.
It seems this issue(alt. energy) is the only place you really see the 'unholy union' of Envoirmental groups and Big Oil in bed together.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 21 2014, @03:00PM
One of my favorites examples of this was a few years back when it was reported environmental groups were fighting the construction of solar plants in the Mojave Desert [yale.edu] to power homes in California, you know, the place that's always choking in smog. The environmentalists (those who were fighting it--others see it differently) were crying how it was going to ruin the scenery. Hello! It's. A. Desert. Nobody lives there. It's rock and sand. All five of the lizards that inhabit that particular stretch of wasteland would probably thank you for building solar panels that create shade for them to get out of the sun. It's one thing if you're talking about a cool desert like the Painted Desert in New Mexico, but the Mojave is a blasted expanse of nothing.
It's a similar story with wind farms. They tend to be built in places where there's a whole lot of nothing except wind. The handful of ranchers and farmers who do live there love them because it amounts to an extra income from the leases while not precluding the ranching and farming they want to do. The only ones you ever hear complaining are the whiny rich ladies who think the turbines spoil the view from the McMansion they built 6 months ago. Me, I love driving across the Midwest and West now and seeing the fields of turbines. It's 21st century and majestic.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @05:16PM
Your screed mixes up all kinds of things.
First, there is lots of wildlife in the mojave [blm.gov] and they are adapted to living in it the way it is, tons of man-made shade will disrupt their lifecycle because they've had millenia to evolve to the current conditions.
Second, the desert is a beautiful place. I've driven past the Ivanpah plant quite a few times in my commute from Vegas to LA. It is really cool to look at it. But 100 of them would be ugly as sin.
As for windmills, I agree they aren't ugly even an entire windfarm isn't bad. But their surface area is miniscule compared to Ivanpah and what surfaces they have blend in far better with the background.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Thursday August 21 2014, @06:55PM
there's the problem: you've never actually been in the desert, merely driven through it. i have lived in the desert, including living in the mojave for a month. a lot of the wildlife stays under rocks during pretty much the entire day to get out of the sun, so solar farms would provide some much-needed shade, and if they could be constructed to work as solar stills as well it'd be even better for the natural plants and wildlife; anything that didn't want the shade provided would just lay in between or climb on top, but since its like 30°F hotter in the sun than in the shade, i doubt anything would. not even getting to all the solar energy wasted, the wildlife would only benefit from the construction of solar farms.
now i agree, they shouldnt be everywhere, because it definitely is fucking cool to be able to look across 30+ mile stretches of desert that only look like a couple hundred feet and everybody should have the chance to experience that, but solar farm installations would provide some much-needed perspective for anybody that might end up getting lost in the desert, as well as provide a place to rest in the shade and call for help.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Thursday August 21 2014, @10:49PM
A month? You must be a real expert then... Me and my 30+ years in the Mojave bow down to your expertise.
Some animals are diurnal, some are nocturnal. Anywhere you go, a good half of the animals will be hiding "under rocks" during the day.
There is still plenty of wildlife out during the day, including jackrabbits, lizards, squirrels, snakes, tortoises, birds, etc. Occasionally raccoons, bobcats, etc. Got a cougar taking up residence in nearby hills right now, though they never stay here for too long.
There have been things like... actual STUDIES on the topic. They don't agree with your assessment. I'd say it's no-doubt better to build solar farms in the desert than clear-cutting a forest, but it will still displace and kill many plants and animals. All those reptiles, for one, NEED all the sunlight they can get. Ditto for plants. They scoff at your squishy human preference for shaded areas.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday August 22 2014, @02:01AM
a month is still more experience than simply driving through ;) but still, i should've specified that i meant death valley rather than just "southern california", of which the mojave takes up a significant portion, and the environment is different (yeah, i should've thought more before typing but i didnt realize that practically half of cali was the mojave). i dont really have any experience in the general mojave except for driving through it to the death valley area.
please do point me to some of those studies, as i dont seem to know the proper search terms to get anything to show up on the first 5 pages with google. naturally before any major project to harvest large amounts of wasted sunlight in life-barren deserts there should be studies to determine how much they disrupt the environment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 22 2014, @02:13AM
sorry, i guess it was closer to the Devil's Playground than Death Valley. both are giant wastelands different from the general mojave though, and neither are very livable.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Friday August 22 2014, @03:26AM
I don't happen to have any good ones bookmarked, but here's a few quick relevant search results:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/victorville2/documents/applicant/afc/Appendix%20H%20Biological%20Resources/Appendix%20H%20Bio%20Technical%20Report.pdf [ca.gov]
Documents specific to this power facility are all here:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ivanpah/documents/index.html [ca.gov]
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:43PM
Many millions of people live there. California, Nevada, Arizona, have large cities in the Mojave Desert. It's a great place to live because of cheap real-estate; evaporative ("swamp") coolers being extremely efficient, far better than air conditioning; and the very small amount of annual home heating required. The higher cost of water is a minuscule price to pay in comparison, and highly water-efficient appliances and fixtures can reduce water usage dramatically.
I think solar power in the deserts is a good thing, and worth the trade-off, but it's not nearly the abandoned wasteland you make it out to be, even if it that's all you can see from the freeway... "The Mojave Desert is one of the most popular tourism spots in North America"
In fact, I'd bet the Mojave Desert is likely more densely populated than large swaths of the plains and mid-west ("flyover country").
There are several wilderness reserves in the Mojave. The Mojave National Preserve is obvious. Death Valley, Nopah, Lake Mead recreation area, Joshua Tree National Park, parts of the Grand Canyon, etc.
In fact, just try here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_Desert#Parks_and_protected_areas [wikipedia.org]
And here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Protected_areas_of_the_Mojave_Desert [wikipedia.org]
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:24PM
I don't see the sneaky conspiracy there. Bird strikes are a real problem with any kind of large structure. And fossil-fuel power plants face stiff fines for any endangered birds that get killed, while solar/wind have been handed an exemption thus far.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.