Europe and international, International

Solar Power Plants Are Literally Roasting Birds In-Flight (Slate.com)

16 Jul 2014

Promoting renewable energy is not an easy job: “it gets dogged by some ironic bit of environmental unpleasantness. Wind turbines can be dangerous to birds and bats. Biofuels require so much land, fertilizer, and water that they may use more energy to produce than they provide. Hydropower dams screw up a whole lot of river habitat and stop fish from spawning”

Thermal solar power is the latest on this list of “dark green” technologies. A lot of birds “are literally being burned alive, in midair”.

An other concern : Other  “birds—tired from flying over the hot desert—home in on what looks like a calm lake but instead crash into hard panels. They either die instantly or, as researchers found, lie helpless for land-based predators. Grebes need to take flight from water, so being marooned on land makes them sitting ducks for predators, should they survive the impact of landing on the panels or desert floor.”

The conclusion of the story : “With several more solar plants under construction, it seems that these facilities will keep their place alongside wind farms, buildings, outdoor housecats, habitat loss, and good old fashioned climate change as deadly human-caused obstacles in the path of a successful bird migration.
Put some seed in your feeders, would you? These guys need a break.”

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