Are Solar Panels Killing Birds

An artificial intelligence powered birder is on the case.

Are solar panels killing birds.

Now as concentrated solar farms start to sweep the globe solar energy developers are facing similar. Fish and wildlife service. The ivanpah solar plant in san bernardino county is killing thousands of birds blasting them into wisps of smoke against the sky that plant workers call business california. Solar facilities kill tens of thousands of birds every year and no one is quite sure why.

In the western united states these large scale installations are often planned for desert areas that receive a lot of sunlight. Meanwhile as many as 28 000 birds are killed each year that s one every two minutes by the ivanpah solar plant in the mojave desert according to the u s. One of their main complaints. The vast field of solar panels which would generate enough electricity to power 230 000 average california homes according to its developer would kill birds.

But there are fewer cats in the united states today than in 2013. Cats eat more birds than wind turbines kill claim wind and solar activists. Meanwhile wind turbines and solar panels are. We have clarified this article to explain how the solar thermal plant differs from the far more common design used in photovoltaic solar farms.

Editor s note 9 september 2019. With a concentraing solar plant birds can be harmed when they fly too close to the path of the reflected solar energy. For example some solar developers in minnesota and other states are growing native plant species around solar panels to benefit birds and other pollinators. The estimate by biologists is that the ivanpah solar plant kills about 3 500 birds per year this way.