Solar
Power is indeed a Wonderful Alternative Energy Resource.
But
what If I told you that Solar Concentrators were killing Birds by the
thousands? Well it’s true, as the BrightSource
Energy Plant, a solar Concentrator Planet based in California is
responsible for killing Birds with its super concentrated Death Ray of sunshine
as stated in the article “Solar Bird Kill”,
published Wednesday, August 20, 2014, The
Jamaica Observer.
BrightSource Energy Plant is a
US$2.2-billion Solar Concentrator Plant that is located in the Ivanpah Dry Lake
near the California-Nevada border. The company is a joint partnership between
the following three (3) partners:
1. NRG
Solar of Carlsbad, California,
2. BrightSource Energy Ltd
3. Mountain
View, California based Google
Launched
in February 2014, it features a large field of 300,000 Mirrors focus sunlight
onto a triad of 40 Storey (122m) tall central towers filled with molten Sodium
Chloride in what’s really an oversized Sterling Engine. This Sodium Chloride is
kept in that state by the concentrated sunlight that can reach temperatures of
close to 6000◦C (10,832◦F).
This
thanks to the mirrors tracking the movement of the Sun across the clear, arid
Skies of the Ivanpah Dry Lake near the California-Nevada border. The molten
Sodium Chloride is used to heat Water to Steam that then turns a Steam Turbine,
generating Electricity for some 140,000 homes.
So
with that kind of potential why shut it down due to few bird kills? The story
is a lot more complicated than that and is an example of Alternative Energy
that's somewhat bad.
BrightSource Energy
Plant - Pheromone Traps for Insects a Desert Feast to Keep the Birds Safe
According
to the Federal Wildlife Investigators, the owners of the BrightSource Energy Plant can't
be allowed to build an even bigger version as Birds are being killed by the
concentrated Death Rays of the Solar Concentrators at a rate of 20 birds per
hour.
The
workers at the plane call them streamers, after the fact that as the birds fly
through the concentrated solar Radiation being focused by the Movable mirrors
at the BrightSource Energy
Plant, their plumage bursts into flames, literally cooking them in mid-flight.
An
expert for the Centre for Biological Diversity environmental group places the
death toll at some 28,000 birds per year, a far cry from the 1000 that BrightSource Energy Plant claim
die at the hands of the Sun. This is because the bright sunlight from tall
those 300,000 mirrors attracts insects which in turn attracts birds that follow
them in flight. Both Bird and insect thus get roasted when they pass through
the Solar Death Ray created by the Solar Concentrator.
So
what can be done about this menace to Birds that's probably decimating Birds
faster than Feral Cats as pointed out in my blog article
entitled “The
Zoological Society of London and their Cat Map - How UWI's Department of
Biotechnology, the JSPCA and Telecom Providers can Kick Ass 2 against Feral
Cats and Dogs”?
The
simple solution is to kill the insects before they fly through the Concentrated
Solar Rays by using pheromone Traps that would be located in and around the
towers. Insects would be attracted to them and fly towards them, thinking it's
a mate only to be gobble up by waiting Birds.
Albeit
it won't stop the Bird Kills, it'll reduce the high number to a level that
would make the BrightSource Energy
Plant a go for further construction! Either that or they could always resort to
building s Solar Concentrators that didn’t focus the sunlight to a tower but
rather onto smaller Sterling Engines or even Solar Panels.
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