How Do Solar Farms Effect Birds & Other Wildlife?
We are very concerned about the wildlife that use this land. As you can see in the video below, the wetlands on this property are visited by many waterfowl species. Bald eagles and hawks fly through this area as well. When driving along I-5 or Diamond Hill, it is not uncommon to spot herds of elk walking through this site.
Solar photovoltaic projects consist of hundreds or thousands of solar panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity. Large solar fields such as those can fool birds into changing flight direction, sometimes during migration, to approach them because they appear to be lakes from a distance.
Many of the birds that have been killed at these large solar sites are waterbirds, which indicates that these birds fly to solar fields and realize too late in their descent that the solar panels are not water. The waterbirds then collide with the solar panels and are critically wounded or killed.
Solar facilities kill tens of thousands of birds every year, and no one is quite sure why. An artificial-intelligence-powered birder is on the case.