# Solar plants = bird death rays? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851 "2014-08-18T19:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/1 "2014-08-18T19:40:03Z")
Found this [rather alarming article](http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/08/18/california-weighing-bird-deaths-from-concentrated-solar-plants-as-it-considers/) about bird deaths at solar power plants. Supposedly, federal wildlife officials have seen birds ignite in midair. The kill rate was 2 per minute (I assume this is a peak rate). Supposedly, workers at the plant call the birds “streamers” because of the stream of smoke they leave as they fall to the ground. It makes you wonder if any truly “green” technology really exists. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/2 "2014-08-18T21:29:39Z")
Not sure if I want to be the first to post. Just saying I saw the link was to Fox news and quickly dismissed it. My city has a problem with crows and this might be the ideal solution. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/3 "2014-08-18T22:14:04Z")
First, consider that boiler-tower solar plants account for a very small portion of solar farms. Nearly all of them are arrays of photo-electric panels. Second, consider that birds everywhere routinely die in collisions with stationary objects, and not just man-made objects. We know something about how many birds die running into power lines, because inspectors sometimes count their carcasses. Nobody prowls the forests to count the birds that died there. Solar power plants and windmills are not a significant hazard to wild birds, compared to all the other things birds fatally run into. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/4 "2014-08-18T22:46:51Z")
Birds flying into windows kills about 990 million birds a year in the US, cats kill anywhere from 1-4 billion. So 2 a minute from a solar plant is not a big number, it works out to less than a million a year per power plant. A thousand of these plants would kill about as many birds as birds that fly into windows, and a fraction of those killed by cats. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/5 "2014-08-18T22:55:21Z")
It’s not like the solar power plants actually hunt birds down, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/6 "2014-08-18T23:19:54Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > It’s not like the solar power plants actually hunt birds down, is it? This put the image in my head of a bunch of solar panels dressed up in flannel with an orange vest and shot gun. ---
**Author:** ![Random\_noob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Random\_noob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random_noob)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-plants-bird-death-rays/695851/7 "2014-08-18T23:39:14Z")
I work as an engineer for a military R & D company. The technology I was developing inadvertently killed 100s of birds… …and it was awesome! Fuck birds, they shit on my car and wrecked the paint.