Birds Getting Killed By Solar Panels

Birds can be killed when they smash into the facility s solar panels the investigation concluded.

Birds getting killed by solar panels.

Bird barrier offers a solar panel protection kit to prevent birds from getting under the panels. In response to growing accusations from both conservationists and conservatives that renewable energy sources like solar and wind kill too many birds u s. The other solar farms analyzed by the investigators were of the newfangled trough and solar. One leading theory suggests birds mistake the glare from solar panels for the surface of a lake and swoop in for a landing with deadly results.

If they do they can basically get cooked by the high energy rays. News and world report has compiled data on which energy industries are responsible for the most bird deaths every year. Meanwhile wind turbines and solar panels are going up at a record pace and scientists are reporting a full blown crisis in the disappearance of 29 percent of north american birds. We 8217 re doing everything we can to reduce the number of birds killed out here david knox spokesman for nrg energy inc owner of ivanpah solar plant 1 9.

But that hypothesis is from a human perspective. In 2015 ivanpah killed about seven birds per gigawatt. In the western united states these large scale installations are often planned for desert areas that receive a lot of sunlight. With a concentraing solar plant birds can be harmed when they fly too close to the path of the reflected solar energy.

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 from birds that ignite. For example some solar developers in minnesota and other states are growing native plant species around solar panels to benefit birds and other pollinators. For each power source wind solar oil and gas nuclear and coal the data on bird deaths is gathered from. The estimate by biologists is that the ivanpah solar plant kills about 3 500 birds per year this way.