Solar Powered Death Ray Frying California Birds

There's a solar plant out in California that generates electricity a little closer to the old fashioned way, by using mirrors to concentrate sunlight on water towers - the water boils and turns turbines and voilà, electricity! It works pretty well too, except for one tiny thing. It fries birds in the process.

Federal investigators have requested that BrightSource, owner of these thermal solar plants, halt the construction of any more of the plants until their impact on wildlife has been investigated a little further. Unlike most other solar plants that use solar panels, the one in Ivanpah has hundreds of thousands of mirrors, each the size of a garage door, and together, they cover about 3,500 acres. Each mirror collects and reflects solar rays, focusing and concentrating solar energy from their entire surfaces upward onto three boiler towers, each looming up to 40 stories high. The solar energy heats the water inside the towers to produce steam, which turns turbines that generate enough electricity for about 140,000 homes. 

It appears that in the process, the concentrated solar energy chars and incinerates the feathers of any birds passing through these death rays. BrightSource estimates about a thousand birds die this way every year, but an environmental group claims the real number is much higher.

Hey, what say we set up a barbecue on their roof and toast some hot dogs & marshmallows? Well, maybe not if we have to watch out for the falling birds ....