"I recently flew into SF for the CSBA meeting.  We got to fly over that solar array that is known for setting birds on fire....  besides being huge and cool, ( looked just like that death star in "Star wars...""


Sounds like the one in the Mojave Desert, which operates on mirrors not photovoltaics....so I doubt there will be an RF problem with that one.  The reason the facility at Ivanpah is killing birds is that the system collects heat (long wavelength radiation) not visible light (shorter wavelength radiation).  I have not seen any study that credibly shows RF hurts bees at levels they will encounter "in the field".


In general, reflections are polarized differently than sunlight (except off metal surfaces), so I'm guessing the bees won't have trouble with it since they can detect the polarization patterns in light.  But of course someone needs to verify this guess by doing the experiment.


Read all about polarization of reflected light here:  http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=35808


Now, bee poop...I can see how that could be a problem for those who have to keep the solar collectors clean.?

Christina

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