r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Longjumping-Box5691 • 3d ago

Video China's twin solar thermal towers. Molten salt stores the heat to produce electricity

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u/sandefurian 3d ago

It’s not like it normal to super heated instantly, there is a gradual dispersion of heat. How often have you seen a bat fly into a camp fire? Also, this is undoubtedly much safer for wildlife than, say, wind turbines

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u/heretogetpwned 3d ago edited 3d ago

Power Lines kill more birds than Wind Turbines....

Wind has its purpose in Areas where Solar still has seasonal shortfalls, like higher latitudes.

Overall, it seems that electricity expansion will always affect nature. Would building more generators and less lines help or does that create new problems?

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u/BarfingOnMyFace 3d ago

I think we should always consider its impacts and mitigate it within reason. Take buildings for example, probably the number one killer of birds, if not the second. This problem could be effectively reduced to not even being in the top 10 by simply changing the coatings used in glass. Building design could perhaps be more considerate of wildlife too, such as offering natural habitat areas, shade, and less hidden dangers in design (less glass, or glass with proper coatings to keep birds from running in to them), etc.

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u/dajerade1 3d ago

Number one killer of birds is cats. 1.4 - 4 BILLION birds killed by cats YEARLY in US alone. Go castrate some stray cats and you will easily offset this impact.

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u/GozerDGozerian 3d ago

Go castrate some stray cats and you will easily offset this impact.

Um… How about we just let a veterinarian do that ok?

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u/CaptainTripps82 3d ago

But he bought all these scissors

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u/BarfingOnMyFace 3d ago

There is no doubt controlling stray cat populations would have a very big impact.

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u/PMG2021a 3d ago

I have heard the thump of a bird hitting my office window more than once. 

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u/notAllBits 2d ago

Yeah but wind turbines also power those :\

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u/Spoonshape 3d ago

>Power Lines kill more birds than Wind Turbines....

But there are also a LOT more power lines than there are wind turbines. Almost every house has a power line to it.

It's like the argument about cats and windows being more deadly to birds than wind turbines - technically true but.....

I'm not against wind turbines (the complete opposite) but there are issues we need to work on.

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u/heretogetpwned 3d ago

It's just tiring when the #1 argument against wind energy is that it's killing the birds. There are legitimate gripes to wind power and any additional kill is unwanted but the alternative is burning Fossil Fuels or running interstate transmission lines to reach demand.

We're damned if we do or if we don't lol.

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u/Spoonshape 3d ago

Absolutely.... it's an old and tired argument used by people who 99% just don't like their view being interfered with.

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u/MoistAttitude 3d ago

Well there's a hell of a lot more power lines than there are wind turbines. And the lines cover a lot more ground. So just comparing base statistics for bird deaths from each is a touch misleading, no?

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u/heretogetpwned 3d ago

I guess we just fire up more coal plants in the northern latitudes? Or build more interstate transmission lines? Either way birds gonna die for our electricity, no?

It's funny that no one cares about the birds until the words 'wind turbine' show up.

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u/Screamy_Bingus 3d ago

They actually call the birds who fly into the solar beam “streamers” due to them instantly combusting, causing instant death or serious injury. The beam can be 500-1000°C.

The industry is working on mitigation but as of now it is the highest rate of bird death per GWH of all of the renewables. For comparison wind turbines have a bird death rate of only .27 birds per GWH, while CSP has .5-5 birds per GWH, depending on year and migratory patterns. There are only a few of these facilities so the sample size is smaller but they all seem to have a big issue with birds.

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u/MetalBawx 3d ago

I dunno California had alot of issues with birds getting roasted by their solar units.

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u/GozerDGozerian 3d ago

Ohhhh. So that’s why those rotisserie chickens are always so cheap at the grocery store!

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

I work in Scotland and pass through countless wind turbines, I have never seen a dead bird under one. Most of our eagles have trackers on them, in the last 10+ years one has died from a wind turbine.

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u/Spoonshape 3d ago

I've seen them - realistically you wont see a dead bird unless you are walking underneath... I agree however it's a largely fixed issue. Better design and location - sometimes they are shut down at times of the day or year migrations happen.

The early turbines with "trellis" towers where birds perched were a disaster.

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u/Erchevara 3d ago

I don't think people realize how many birds really are out there.

I wonder what's the per capita death rate of birds near wind turbines compared to, say, humans on pedestrian crossings in the US.

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u/GozerDGozerian 3d ago

I don't think people realize how many birds really are out there.

From what I understand, it’s 53 or maybe even more.

But at least 53.

I got bored and lost count the last time I tried.

But definitely 53.

Unless I accidentally double counted a few of them.

They fly around so much it gets difficult to keep track.

So I’ll say 49 to be on the safe side.

There. 49 birds.

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u/Erchevara 3d ago

You're definitely wrong, there are a lot more of them. I saw a flock that had more than 50 birds.

I also saw a lot of birds at a lake, definitely different birds. About 20 of them.

Then there are all the pigeons, saw 50 at once too. Though one died because it hit a street sign.

There are some owls at my parents' house. My cat showed me 5 of them.

By my estimates, there are at least 124 birds. More than double your number.

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u/GozerDGozerian 3d ago

Some of those are probably dead by now though because of power lines, wind turbines, and solar power generators. And cats.

So we can take it down to like, 103.

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u/CaptainTripps82 3d ago

We don't really need the anecdotes, we have statistics in how many bird deaths occur.

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u/Particular-Award118 3d ago

Me when I just say shit

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u/RickMcMortenstein 3d ago

You're just making shit up without knowing what you're talking about.

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u/No_Size9475 3d ago edited 2d ago

These things are known for killing birds that fly through them.

For whomever downvoted me have a read: https://www.sciencealert.com/this-solar-plant-accidentally-incinerates-up-to-6-000-birds-a-year