Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant's concentrated sun rays — "streamers," for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair
Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one "streamer" every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator's application to build a still-bigger version.
...more at link
I wonder if this is happening at more than just this one solar power plant.
I have seen two of this type of solar plant. They make the sky around the "tank" brown. They make so much heat from the reflective mirrors that the air around the center of the field appear burnt. From miles away you can see what appears to be the brightest "star" you have ever seen shinning at ground level in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the day. That "star" is the mirror field. As you drive around it (from miles away) the glow does not dim because the mirror field is circular and reflects from all directions around the tank to aim sunlight at it.
And they say there is no free lunch.......!? Electricity and a roast bird, delivered!
All they have to do now is set up a little Diner down the road from the plant, and they can use the profits from the diner to lower the costs of electricity too their customers!
Free electricity, free dinners, lower costs to customers.... GOLD!
Ironically, I was just driving home through the Mojave today and drove right by that area. So here's the reality......I work at every power plant, gas compressor yard, and hydro power plant from Oregon down to Arizona and even Diablo Canyon Nuclear. At any electrical substation there are capacitor banks in the 500kv yards that store the energy. They are so dangerous that I have to park my vehicle about 40 ft from the fence line or the vehicle will get charged and I will get mildly burned if I touch it. At one of our substations that I am visiting tomorrow, there are thousands of feathers all over the place near the cap bank units because of the birds being fried on the capacitors. Nothing can be done about this and nothing will be done about the solar panels. Too bad about the birds. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow from the 500KV yard and post the images in this thread.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 08-20-2014).]
All they have to do now is set up a little Diner down the road from the plant, and they can use the profits from the diner to lower the costs of electricity too their customers!
Free electricity, free dinners, lower costs to customers.... GOLD!
The electricity will be so cheap they won't have to meter it.
My father had worked on the North East corridor for Amtrak until he passed away in 1999. This is one of the few areas of railroad that uses overhead wire. Seen a lot of pigeons with burned off feet and feathers fried on their heads. About 4 times more on the ground. The overhead had a contact line, clamped to a carrier line, then to insulated suspension cables. If they landed on the contact line they were OK, they would be at the same voltage as the carrier line. If they landed on the carrier line, they were just tall enough to contact the suspension cables on straight runs. They also seem to move in groups. So when half dozen moved and landed in the wrong spot, it sometimes was like watching a firing squad. With all targets being hit at the same time. There were some that amazingly "learned" where not to land. It is comical watching those when it rains. Through all this, there were plenty of ecologist riding trains. I guess you don't complain after you have been dive crapped a few times and the cables help keep them away. Different story when you are waiting for a cab on the other side.
A good number of large buildings I have been on have a semi-natrual way to keep pigeons and a lot of birds away. They tried the stuffed or plastic owls. That only works until the birds find they don't move or change something. The ones that work are the ones that randomly make Falcon calls. Most birds just fly by and leave.
[This message has been edited by cmechmann (edited 08-21-2014).]
Well hell, the thousands of feathers have been cleaned up and there are only a handful of new feathers on the ground. Here are the capacitor banks:
And some of the feathers:
At one point we had a high wind and all of the feathers that were at the base of the cap banks blew into the fenceline that I photographed. It was so thick that the fence looked as though they installed privacy mesh across the entire fence. Like I said, this has been going on since they invented the capacitor banks so a few California hippies who are concerned about the solar panels and birds won't change a thing.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 08-21-2014).]
