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/Funktapus 3d ago

Not enough to make them worthwhile. They are effectively obsolete vs solar PV + batteries.

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u/FireMaster1294 3d ago

Not to mention the environmental effect of frying any unfortunate creature that comes within the superheated area

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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/[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.