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Emerging Solar Plants Scorch Birds In Mid-Air

Monday, August 18, 2014 | Ivanpah Dry Lake, Calif.
AP Photo / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

This October 2013 photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a burned MacGillivray's Warbler that was found at the Ivanpah solar plant in the California Mojave Desert.

AP Photo / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

(AP) -- A new form of solar energy is having an unwanted side effect: It makes some birds ignite in midair.

California's energy commission is studying the issue of bird deaths at a new kind of solar plant that works with concentrated sun rays. The technology has proved unexpectedly deadly to birds at a new solar plant in the Mojave Desert. It's owned by Google and two California energy companies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is urging the state to hold off on permitting another plant of the same kind. It wants more study of what it says is the significant number of birds igniting and falling as they fly above the plant.

BrightSource Energy and NRG Solar say they are studying methods of reducing bird deaths.


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