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mattie_p writes that this was originally submitted by cmn32480 via the forums.
"According to Fox News, environmentalists are concerned about the impact of the world's largest solar plant, which is located in the Mojave Desert, on the local bird population. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (a solar thermal plant) covers nearly five square miles, has approximately 350,000 garage door sized computer controlled mirrors, and has temperatures near the boilers reaching 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Plant owners NRG Energy Inc., Google Inc., and BrightSource Energy say they have found dozens of dead birds in the complex in the last several months, some with burned or scorched feathers. The plant cost $2.2 Billion to construct, and had been held up in regulatory and wildlife relocation fighting for several years. It has officially been open since Thursday, February 13, 2014."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Popeidol on Monday February 17 2014, @11:29AM
Dozens of dead birds over a five-square-mile area over multiple months is pretty vague. At the low end it works out to under two birds per square mile per month, which doesn't seem unusually high.
This isn't my area of expertise, does anybody know what's considered normal or 'acceptable' for bird deaths?
(Score: 1) by dx3bydt3 on Monday February 17 2014, @11:34AM
It would depend on the species, some might be quite abundant and a high rate of casualties might be acceptable, i.e. a dozen pigeons wouldn't matter, a dozen condors would be a different story.
(Score: 1) by mhajicek on Monday February 17 2014, @12:57PM
What do you mean, African or European?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by dilbert on Monday February 17 2014, @01:25PM
...and were the birds burned before they died, or after they'd died and sat in the heat/reflected sunlight for a period of time?
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday February 17 2014, @09:29PM
Fox News missed the real story. There aren't enough scavengers to consume or otherwise remove the dead bird population. Because of the larges fences around the installation, low wage workers must be hired to removed the few dozen dead birds. With the current labor markets, there is a shortage of people willing to accept low wages for menial tasks. We need real immigration reform if we're going to have enough underpaid illegals to remove dead birds from fields of solar panels. If we don't enact new legislation now, we will be buried by mounds of dead birds. Think of the children! They will have to walk over mountains of disease infected dead animals just to get to school each day. Tell you congressman today to vote for immigration reform to save us from the dead birds! Tell them Fox News sent you.
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