Recently in Wildlife
Wind:
The Feds have just released the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for wind project near the mouth of the Grand Canyon that may pose a threat to the Canyon's population of reintroduced California condors.
Wind:
In a reversal that has outraged environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will not penalize a Southern California wind operator if its turbines kill or injure one California condor.
Wildlife:
A photo making the rounds of social media may prove embarrassing to Pattern Energy, the developer of the huge Ocotillo Express Wind project in Imperial County.
Wind:
The federal government has been sued over a recently-approved wind project in Nevada. Plaintiffs charge the federal government conducted an inadequate review of the project's likely effects on desert wildlife.
Wildlife:
More than half of the Mojave Desert biodiversity "hotspots" identified in a study are under threat from utility-scale renewable energy development and related transmission corridors.
Concentrating Solar:
The concerns expressed in the letter may have serious ramifications for other BrightSource projects.
Wildlife:
BrightSource experts say that the California Energy Commission oversimplifies the issue of solar flux injury to birds, but one of those experts may have made a sensible suggestion that the firm won't like much.
The Grid:
The Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Project would help make energy derived from renewable sources available more reliably, but at what cost?
Concentrating Solar:
Both BrightSource and the California Energy Commission staff agree that there's a level of concentration of solar flux from the proposed Hidden Hills solar project that will harm birds. Where the disagreement arises is just what that level is.
Wind:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked the public for help in gathering information on eagle mortality in the wake of the death of a golden eagle at the North Sky River wind facility on January 29. The eagle was found near a North Sky River turbine just one month after the facility started operation in December 2012.
Wildlife:
A bill has been introduced that could loosen protections on eagles, hawks, and other raptors to make it easier to build new transmission lines for renewable energy.
Concentrating Solar:
BrightSource Energy tested the effects of their concentrated solar on a number of dead birds as part of their studies of the proposed Hidden Hills solar facility in Inyo County, but the company has since refused to release the photos to the public because they're too "inflammatory."
Wildlife:
ReWire reported that we'd learned the North Sky River wind facility in Kern County had been the site of an eagle death. North Sky River's owner offered us a comment on the eagle's death.
Wildlife:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering eliminating most public oversight of wind turbine impacts on protected bald and golden eagles by offering developers 30-year permits to kill eagles by accident, as opposed to the current 5-year permits. What's more, they're shaping the implementation of that proposed policy change in a series of private "stakeholders'" meetings to which the public is not invited.
Wind:
A proposed wind turbine installation in North Dakota poses a threat to the critically endangered whooping crane, of which fewer than 400 remain in the wild.
Concentrating Solar:
The Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System, proposed by BrightSource Energy for the Pahrump Valley in Inyo County, would destroy half the known occurrences of a rare plant in California, according to the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) -- and the California Energy Commission (CEC) isn't doing enough to make sure that loss of population won't result in the plant's extinction in the state, says the group.
Wildlife:
Some people, prominent environmentalists among them, are citing recent reports about wildlife-killing cats to argue that the threat wind turbines pose to birds and bats is far lower, and thus not a big deal. But that argument is fatally flawed both logically and ecologically. Here's why.
Wind:
A years-long campaign to reduce bird mortality at the Altamont Pass wind turbine area has cut deaths of eagles and three other bird of prey species by about 50 percent since 2005.
Wind:
The operator of a proposed wind turbine facility near the city of Mojave got the thumbs-up for its project from Kern County supervisors, but only on the condition that there's a way to monitor California condors and shut down turbines if the birds come too close.
Concentrating Solar:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the California Energy Commission needs to provide more data on potential risks to wildlife, especially migratory birds, from the proposed Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating Station.
News and analysis about renewable energy in California. Blog host Chris Clarke is an environmental writer of two decades standing. He currently lives in Joshua Tree and can be contacted at: rewire@kcet.org.
- Wind Power
- PV and Solar Thermal
- Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI)
- Watts and Watt-Hours, Kilo and Mega
- 'Enough To Power X Thousand Homes'
- The Grid
- Distributed Generation
- Conservation and 'Negawatts'
- Grid Storage
- PACE Loans, Feed In Tariffs and Net Metering
- Base Load and Peaking Power
- Capacity Factor
- Renewable Portfolio Standards
- Biomass
- Transportation and Renewable Energy
- Geothermal
