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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: 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.