It’s not just Wind Turbines that kill wildlife, from the Wall Street Journal:
“A giant solar-power project officially opening this week in the California desert is the first of its kind, and may be among the last, in part because of growing evidence that the technology it uses is killing birds.”
“The $2.2 billion solar farm, which spans over five square miles of federal land southwest of Las Vegas, includes three towers as tall as 40-story buildings. Nearly 350,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect sunlight onto boilers atop the towers, creating steam that drives power generators.”
“The owners of the project— NRG Energy Inc., NRG, Google Inc. GOOG and BrightSource Energy Inc., the company that developed the “tower power” solar technology—call the plant a major feat of engineering that can light up about 140,000 homes a year.”
“Ivanpah is among the biggest in a spate of power-plant-sized solar projects that have begun operating in the past two years, spurred in part by a hefty investment tax credit that expires at the end of 2016. Most of them are in California, where state law requires utilities to use renewable sources for a third of the electricity they sell by 2020.”
“Utility-scale solar plants have come under fire for their costs–Ivanpah costs about four times as much as a conventional natural gas-fired plant but will produce far less electricity—and also for the amount of land they require.
That makes for expensive power. Experts have estimated that electricity from giant solar projects will cost at least twice as much as electricity from conventional sources. But neither the utilities that have contracted to buy the power nor state regulators have disclosed what the price will be, only that it will be passed on to electricity customers.”
“The BrightSource system appears to be scorching birds that fly through the intense heat surrounding the towers, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The company, which is based in Oakland, Calif., reported finding dozens of dead birds at the Ivanpah plant over the past several months, while workers were testing the plant before it started operating in December. Some of the dead birds appeared to have singed or burned feathers, according to federal biologists and documents filed with the state Energy Commission.”
“Regulators said they anticipated that some birds would be killed once the Ivanpah plant started operating, but that they didn’t expect so many to die during the plant’s construction and testing. The dead birds included a peregrine falcon, a grebe, two hawks, four nighthawks and a variety of warblers and sparrows. State and federal regulators are overseeing a two-year study of the facility’s effects on birds.”
“The agency also is investigating the deaths of birds, possibly from colliding with structures, found at two other, unrelated solar farms. One of those projects relies on solar panels and the other one uses mirrored troughs. Biologists think some birds may have mistaken the vast shimmering solar arrays at all three installations for a lake and become trapped on the ground after landing.”
glenncz … California has a strong solar mandate, and tiered peak pricing plan for electricity. They charge customers dramatically more for power during peak load periods – even above 30 cents per kWh if I recall from memory.
Regardless the utilities will buy this power at inflated rates to meet their renewables requirements,
This massive boondoggle at Ivanpah – covering 3500 acres – will power just 140,000 homes – appx 20-25% of the time – only when the sun shines. For comparison, the single XCEL Sherco plant in MN powers 2 million homes with 90+% up time.
The solar from Ivanpah will very likely INCREASE emissions, as the backup generation, providing power the 75%+ of the time solar is not available, likely comes mostly from less efficient fossil fueled peaking load plants, instead of more efficient base load generators.
Germany found emissions have INCREASED appx 2.5% annually, as they have added solar power … and their electricity costs have skyrocketed to the point their industry is approaching being non-competitive..
Solar is not the solution. Germany, Spain, the EU and even the solar people in Calif are backing away from or even abandoning solar
Just shows you that these so-called “environmentalists” are nothing of the sort. They are first rate hypocrites who put their irrational hatred carbon ahead of every decent human feeling for the environment, not to mention civilization.
we can point out all the flaws in every aspect of global warming theory/models as well as green energy all day long. it won’t matter at all to the faithful. logic may be part of their vocabulary but certainly not part of their thought process. dead birds ok for them long as its not a chemical killing them. ripping people off with outrageous energy prices ok as long as its not bush – cheney and their oil buddies getting rich. hydro good till downstream silts in then dam must be removed . nuclear was horrible 30 years ago – now ok maybe? build one and see how long it takes for it to be horrible again. cost for any project is not a problem as well as big government pays with your money. lots of people have no real desire for the truth if it does not fit their view and they get their view from cbs or nbc or cnn or the weather channel. see it everywhere – they don’t care about actual observations. crazy
Windmill generators chop up birds and bats, the concentrating solar boiler fries them alive but the EPA is quite happy to give these inefficient industries a free pass on penalties and allow tem to violate the Endangered Species Act. The Greenies would be enraged and demonstrating if it was coal fire or nuclear power stations doing this. But, Hey, why should the Greenies care about birds and bats and the environment, if it all advances their Marxist philosophy.
I guess it comes done which they prefer, eating boiled lobster or cooked crow.
I would think workers there could just toss their lunches into the air and it would come down cooked ready to eat..bag of popcorn would be fun. Wonder what kind of worker safety issues there would be
Just read about the project in the San Jose Mercury News, and the developers built this $2.2 billion project on a dry lake bed. What? Living in Nevada, I’ve seen water in these “dry” lake beds. Are you kidding me? One good pineapple or summer thunderstorm over the area will cause flooding. Amazing.
I saw this comment at the WSJ site:
“I have driven past the complex several times. Visually it looking pretty cool; however, at night it is lit up with a bunch of electric lights & I just wonder if it is sucking electricity from the grid, or if they run off batteries charged by the complex during the day.”
It made me wonder if they are buying power at market rates to operate lights that generate electricity that can be sold at their contract rates? Something similar was happening in Spain a few years ago I think.
In short, green energy is an environmental disaster as well as an economic disaster.
Still, I’m sure Obama can and will do worse.
Between solar project like these and wind turbines (if they build enough of both), the idiotic wind and solar energy zealots will probably wipe out half the bird population in the U.S. Add that to the fact that this solar project is far more expensive to build and operate than a NG power plant producing more (and reliable base load 24/7) electricity, and any reasonable thinking person is left to wonder if the greenie left is even capable of thinking rationally and logically. It’s all religion with them.
Kill wind turbines (and solar farms like this), not avian wildlife.
/facepalm
Wait it’s built in the middle of a dry lake bed?
Did they do something to divert the currently dry river courses the feed the dry lake bed during wet seasons like we get every oh decade or two? Like maybe is anticipated in the next year or two?
/facepalm
“A major feat of engineering that can light up about 140,000 homes a year.”
I don’t see much of a demand for lighting homes during daylight hours.
But I’m not a scientist or engineer so I possibly couldn’t understand the complexities and urgency to provide lighting during daylight hours.
…… and one other thing. Has anyone associated with this idiotic project thought about what is going to happen with a wind storm goes barreling through that area? Not to mention keep them clear of dust and dirt from everyday blowing wind. Absolute idiocy.
Capital cost is the same as a twin nuclear plant of 2.4 GW. The solar plant rated size is under 0.4 GW. Nuclear has a 95 percent capacity factor, solar thermal around 20 percent. Life cycle costs are likely going to end up over 10 times a nuclear plant. Current natural gas production costs, capital (and operating) are much lower than nuclear. One fifth the capital cost to produce the same amount of electric power. No normal person pays five times more for the exact same product when they are side by side. Not even nuclear can compete with natural gas or coal.
Life cycle costs for 40 years of operation are known to a tenth of a cent per kWh of electricity, about 4 cents per kWh for either coal or natural gas.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/capitalcost/
p.s. Adding CO2 to the atmosphere is a beneficial side product of fossil fuel burning.
Reblogged this on RubinoWorld and commented:
Land developers are prevented from building new homes because of some “endangered” bug. But it’s perfectly fine to kill birds if the cause is green energy.
“Solar is not the solution. Germany, Spain, the EU and even the solar people in Calif are backing away from or even abandoning solar”
Yep, folks that where paying attention the last time we tried this (late70’s) learned the same lesson. Who was the prezzie dent back then, I forget…..
But the good news is we could pay some new federal employees the higher minimum wage to collect the “food” from around these towers and deliver it (already microwaved) to food stamp recipients (plenty of those now). This would reduce the deficit, eliminate evil income inequality, and stimulate the economy, a good old “threefer”……
also, /sarc off……
Cheers, Kevin.
PGE Electricity rates.
I’m somewhat envious of those of you quoting low rates for electricity.
This is from my mid-August to mid September 2013 bill for E7 QB Residential Time-of-Use Service, Daily Tier 1 Allowance was 7.5 kWh. 652 kWh were used in 29 days.
Tier 1 Peak 41 kWh @ur momisugly $0.32251
Off peak 176 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.08159
Tier 2 Peak 12 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.34122
Off Peak 53 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.10029
Tier 3 Peak 29 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.50196
Off Peak 124 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.26103
Tier 4 Peak 41 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.54196
Off Peak 176 kWh @ur momisugly $ 0.30103
Home is in the SF Bay area and doesn’t have (or need) an air conditioner.
Note the small size of Tier 2 and the big jump in rates between Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Try to think of the bird as your local economy, your paycheck, and your purchasing power all sort of rolled into one.
Hey does anyone remember Solar One built back in 1983? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solar_Project
Could this happen at the site of this solar project?
Being Green means never having to say you are sorry.
From a wiki link someone provided; (CAPS added by myself)
“On November 25, 2009, after 10 years of NOT PRODUCING any energy, the Solar Two tower was demolished.[1] The mothballed site was levelled and returned to vacant land by Southern California Edison. All heliostats and other hardware were removed.”
Oh goodie,now we have some more vacant land to build these monuments to idiotically stupid ideas on…..
Think of the economic stimulus, design a bad engineering solution, build it (at tremendous expense), learn that it is a bad engineering solution, tear it down, rinse and repeat……
Cheers, Kevin.
So, if you had a bunch of Wind Turbines and this Solar Plant, you could end up with your birds chopped and fried. Sounds like a fast-food winner to me.
The results of these “renewables” experiments in energy are now quite abundant. The costs of the “sustainable, renewable energy” adds tremendous fees and rate increases to users.
For example, in Germany, “Almost all predictions about the expansion and cost of German wind turbines and solar panels have turned out to be wrong – at least by a factor of two, sometimes by a factor of five.”
–Daniel Wentzel, Die Welt, 20 October 2012
Therefore, people who are hawking renewables, and selling them to young, uncritical idealists, are at best ignoring the plain results of these previous experiments. That is something a scientist or an engineer would never do. Remember Popper warned that if social experiments are to be run, they must be small, and the results must be accepted if negative. “Sustainability,” if it has any definition at all, is plainly a totally anti-rational and anti-scientific term, which disregards all observations and objectivity in favor of carefully manipulated government numbers showing success and hiding the expense and shortages.
The statement “light up about 140,000 homes a year” is deliberately misleading. It can only provide power during the day, and homes only need to be lit up at night. Also those 140,000 homes actually need power 24/7. So which coal fired or nuclear power plant is going to be used when the sun is not shining or during the night for those 140,000 homes.
Is it just me or are these people incapable of saying anything without lying about it?