Into the Night
Verified User
Well, the op article was about the Congo. But I did get around to it.
And of course we haven't mentioned the millions of bird deaths from WHITE LIB windmills and Solar farms.
Birds die because of windmills, solar farms, getting hit by cars, flying into windows, getting eaten by other birds, getting caught in farm machinery, eating something toxic, nest falling out of a tree, power lines, etc.
They also survive in great numbers in oil refineries, farmer's fields, lonely gravel beaches in the arctic, routinely fly across the gulf of Mexico, etc.
Soaring birds like eagles or hawks are easily fooled by the wind generators. These large blades look lazy from a distance, but their tips are moving a quite a surprising speed. These birds soar off the updraft from these blades while hunting. Sometimes they don't judge it correctly and they get thwacked by one. It only takes once.
Solar panels generally don't kill birds, but birds can certainly damage the solar panels, and they do.
Some types of solar plants (such as Solar One just outside of Las Vegas) can and do kill lower flying birds (local critters, not migratory), if they happen to fly near the parabolic center of the plant. They literally come roasted out of the sky. These plants use computer controlled mirrors to concentrate the Sun's energy on a single reactor vessel, filled with salt. The molten salt is used to produce steam and that used to drive a generator. This plant is listed as a hazard to aircraft due to the bright spot on the desert that is formed, and is marked on all the charts. Incidentally, the light beam out of the top of the Luxor hotel is listed as a similar hazard, and it's right next to McCarren airport (now named after the slimeball that stole Nevada land in property grabs and became one of the worst senators, Harry Reid, I still call it by McCarren).
Aircraft flying in and out of McCarren airport know of these hazards and avoid them. The control tower will not direct traffic over the Luxor or towards Solar One.
