Can heat from large-scale solar installations harm birds?
By Jiyul Kim
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YES
While generating clean electricity benefits birds, thermal solar installations are particularly harmful to them as they produce concentrated yet invisible areas of intense heat. According to a 2016 study, utility-scale solar farms in the U.S. may kill up to 138,600 birds annually. This number is less than 0.1% of the estimated number of birds killed by fossil-fueled power plants, but researchers expect such bird fatalities to almost triple as more solar farms come online.
Birds can also mistake panels for bodies of water and try to land on them, resulting in injury or death, though adding special patterns to panels can mitigate risk. More research on the subject is being conducted as not much is known about this issue.
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