Solar Fried Chicken

Social media- where those who can’t claim victim status become heroic defenders of the defenseless in a desperate scramble to attain an imagined moral high ground.

Or, the playground where amateur sophists try their hand at having ‘discussions’ by hurling whichever narrative they’ve heard at each other…

It truly can be a fun place if one has the stomach for it…

The irony, by the way, isn’t lost on me that I mock the very game I participate in- guilty as charged I guess.

It’s just too irresistible at times to NOT step in and ask a few questions and poke some holes in the narratives being spewed like farts around the Blazing Saddles campfire.

Anyways, I had made a response/comment on a post about a recent utility-grade solar plant that suggested rooftop solar is viable, reliable, and in many cases affordable.

Nothing too offensive, but hey what do I know? The response came quickly:

“Can you imagine how many birds would be fried every year if everyone had rooftop solar”

I was baffled. Just blank. Din’t know what this was about and responded:

“Huh?”

I got a response and an article:

“The heat reflected and other causes from solar panels can kill birds”

The article is in WIRED and is titled: “Why Do Solar Farms Kill Birds? Call in the AI Bird Watcher”

Mostly, an discussion on how there is a movement to use Artificial Intelligence to help figure out why birds might be dying around utility-grade solar farms.

https://www.wired.com/story/why-do-solar-farms-kill-birds-call-in-the-ai-bird-watcher/

At first glance, reading the headline one might jump all the way to the conclusion that solar farms kill birds is the point and the take away therefore is that solar farms are bad.

But anyone with any sort of reading and comprehension skill would pick up (in the first three paragraphs for the tl;dr crowd) that actually the solar farms kill birds at a rate of less than 1/10th of a percent than fossil fuel plants do on an annual basis.

Our reply guy wasn’t too keen on this. I am assuming maybe it was the math because when I asked if he had read the article, he stammered something about solar being only a small percentage of energy- hence the low numbers.

Lol, math.

Let’s do some.

Basing this entirely on the article provided as truth by our new online friend, and a tweeted article stating that globally, solar has come up to 14% of the energy produced.

Article says utility-grade solar farms kill 140,000 birds annually which is 1/10th of a percent of what Fossil Fuel plant kill.

Total birds = Fossil Fuel birds + Solar birds

Solar birds = 1/10th percent of FF birds = .001 x FF birds

FF birds = Solar birds divided by .001

FF birds = 140,000 divided by .001 = 140,000,000 (140 Million)

I doubt the 14% number is ‘right’ for the U.S., so let’s just say its 10% of total power production… shouldn’t that mean 10% of the 140 million = 14 million birds, not 140,000 birds should be getting killed?

Phew, math is hard, logic is even harder…

This article showcases a concerted effort to reduce the number of birds getting killed by using AI to monitor what the birds are actually doing (flight, etc.). Meaning, they are expending a lot of effort to reduce an already comparatively very low number.

Where’s the articles about groups studying why/how etc. for the 139,800,000 birds that get killed annually by the fossil fuel plants?

The truth is rooftop solar technology has advanced to a point where it is viable, reliable, and in many cases affordable despite the selective outrage about birds.

If you are looking into getting rooftop solar for your home and would like a little help seeing past all the virtue signaling nay-sayers online, I will soon be releasing Tucson Solar Insider Desk Guide for Buying Solar- click here to get notified.

Be Good!

Curtis