This is what these solar farms do >
http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2014/08/24/ivanpah-thermal-solar-power-plant-produces-death-rays-torching-many-birds/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/26/solyndra-misled-government-get-535-million-solar-p/
START
Ivanpah thermal solar power plant produces “death rays” torching many birds
By Ralph Maughan On August 24, 2014
In B.L.M., Desert Tortoise, Energy, Public Lands, Solar Roast bird record at Mojave solar plant even worse than predicted?
Plant workers call them “streamers.” Birds that fly through the beams of concentrated sunlight at the massive Ivanpah solar plant near Primm, Nevada catch fire and fall from the sky, leaving a smoky trail as they burn and die.
This solar plant is not the typical solar plant made of photovoltaic cells.
Photovoltaics are thought usually harmless to wildlife except for the cleared land. Photovoltaics are very scalable — they can be built in all sizes, shapes, and put on the ground, rooftops, parking lots, platforms at sea, etc.
The Ivanpah style plant instead uses many thousands of large mirrors (300,000 at Ivanpah). They concentrate reflected sunlight into powerful beams aimed at “power towers” — boilers that use the steam to turn turbines and generate electricity in the old fashioned way. Photovoltaics produce electricity directly.
The Ivanpah plant has been controversial from the start. At first it was because the land selected in the Ivanpah Valley was splendid habitat for many hundreds of desert tortoises. The land was also very near to the Mojave National Preserve.
It is also on public (BLM) lands covering about 6 square miles from which all vegetation has been removed and the desert soil covered over.
As time went by it occurred to people that the solar beams with their temperatures up to 800º F would be dangerous to anything that passed through them. In addition the flashes from the mirrors could carry a long way and be a danger to pilots.
Now it is thought that the rows of mirrors reflecting light look like desert lakes to birds. Moreover, the light from the mirrors attracts insects too, further attracting birds.
One formally reported incident of “flash glare” was reported in March this year. Extremely bright flash-glare from the mirror fields around the towers briefly blinded the pilots flying a corporate light 2 turbojet. It had passengers aboard.
There is no agreement how many birds are roasted, but a recent study made public by the California Energy Commission by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) indicates that the number is high.
The report says “It appears that Ivanpah may act as a “mega-trap,” attracting insects which in turn attract insect-eating birds, which are incapacitated by solar flux injury, thus attracting predators and creating an entire food chain vulnerable to injury and death.”
Unlike wind farms which seem to preferentially kill certain kind of birds, Ivanpah was “equal opportunity.”
The remains of 71 species were identified, representing a broad range of ecological types. In body size, these ranged from hummingbirds to pelicans; in ecological type from strictly aerial feeders (swallows) to strictly aquatic feeders (grebes) to ground feeders (roadrunners) to raptors (hawks and owls).
The species identified were equally divided among resident and non-resident species, and nocturnal as well as diurnal species were represented. Although not analyzed in detail, there was also significant bat and insect mortality at the Ivanpah site, including monarch butterflies.
Collecting birds on the ground does not give a full accounting of bird death because not all “streamers” fall and die on sight. Birds were observed to fly through, catch fire and then perch, only to make a erratic flight off to die somewhere else. CBD estimated that perhaps 28,000 birds die from what happens at the site each year.
BrightSource Energy runs the place. They estimate about a thousand birds a year dead, but last year federal investigators report they saw “streamers” about every 2 minutes during their visit to Ivanpah.
Right wing fossil fuel advocates are criticizing environmentalists using Ivanpah as an example of what alternative energy, which they misleadingly call “green energy,” is like. It is not green, and Ivanpah was opposed by a number of environmental groups from the start, including CBD and Western Watersheds Project, who sued to try to stop it.
Back in 2011, we ran a number of stories in the Wildlife News about WWPs efforts to stop it. Excellent updates with photos on the project and other controversial solar projects can be found at http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/
Below are select articles from the News.
* Last Spring at Ivanpah ? April 12, 2009
* Ivanpah Power Plant – Not Clean Not Green. Oct. 5, 2010
* WWP Sues to Stop Fast Tracked Ivanpah Power Plant in California. Jan. 17, 2011
* BLM halts some construction at Ivanpah Power Plant. April 19, 2011
Despite the controversy over Ivanpah, BrightSource has applied to build another such plant in the middle of an important flyway where much larger birds, and larger numbers of birds are at risk. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reported to be trying to stop this project. This would be a 75-story power tower and mirrors. The tower would rise above the sand dunes and creek washes the run between Joshua Tree National Park and the California-Arizona border. The flyway is between the Colorado River and the Salton Sea.
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EDIT >
Bright Source Energy/Solyndra/SolarReach
https://twitter.com/BrightSource
Israel is building the world's tallest solar tower, with 50,000 mirrors #solar #Ashalim #CSP -
https://twitter.com/BrightSource/status/852931455424626689
BrightSource Energy @BrightSource
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Part 5 >
The timing of this meeting was also curious. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.
In 2011, there was a second meeting between the Rosemont Seneca Partners and the same Chinese government fund managers:
There was a second known meeting with many of the same Chinese financial titans in Taiwan in May 2011. For a small firm like Rosemont Seneca with no track record, it was an impressive level of access to China’s largest financial players. And it was just two weeks after Joe Biden had opened up the US-China strategic dialogue with Chinese officials in Washington.
In December 2013, Hunter Biden flew with his father and Vice President Joe Biden aboard Air Force Two for the culmination of Rosemont’s joint venture investment fund with the Bank of China.
The new fund was named Bohai Harvest RST – or BHR. Bohai for China’s stake. RS for Rosemont Seneca. T for Thorton Group.
Of the known trips to China made by Hunter Biden, each one coincided with strategic foreign policy meetings between Vice President Joe Biden and the Chinese government.
Small wonder the Bank of China upped the final joint venture to $1.5 billion.
The Bank of China is an enormously powerful financial institution. But the Bank of China is very different from the Bank of America. The Bank of China is government-owned, which means that its role as a bank blurs into its role as a tool of the government. The Bank of China provides capital for “China’s economic statecraft,” as scholar James Reilly puts it. Bank loans and deals often occur within the context of a government goal.
The fund enjoyed an unusual and special status in China. BHR touted its “unique Sino-US shareholding structure” and “the global resources and network” that allowed it to secure investment “opportunities.” Funds were backed by the Chinese government.
In short, the Chinese government was literally funding a business that it co-owned along with the sons of two of America’s most powerful decision makers.
Schweizer notes some troubling transactions undertaken by the fund:
In 2015, BHR joined forces with the automotive subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to buy American “dual-use” parts manufacturer Henniges.
AVIC is a major military contractor in China. It operates “under the direct control of the State Council” and produces a wide array of fighter and bomber aircraft, transports, and drones — primarily designed to compete with the United States.
The company also has a long history of stealing Western technology and applying it to military systems. The year before BHR joined with AVIC, the Wall Street Journal reported that the aviation company had stolen technologies related to the US F-35 stealth fighter and incorporated them in their own stealth fighter, the J-31. AVIC has also been accused of stealing US drone systems and using them to produce their own.
Due to dual-use (military) vibration technologies owned by Henniges, the deal required approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
CFIUS is the same U.S. government entity that granted approval for the sale of Uranium One to Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, in October 2010.
You can find all the details behind Uranium One in, A Uranium One Primer – Clinton, Giustra & Kazakhstan’s Uranium Assets.
CFIUS approved the Bohai Harvest RST and AVIC acquisition of Henniges in 2015.
This transaction effectively gave the Chinese government a 76% ownership stake in Henniges (51% through AVIC and 25% through the Bank of China’s 50% stake in Bohai).
The timing of Schweizer’s new disclosures is interesting. By pure chance I recently wrote three pieces that included references to Hunter Biden:
Victoria Nuland, Alexandra Chalupa, Ukrainian Ties & the Steel Dossier – March 9, 2018.
Victor Pinchuk, the Clintons & Endless Connections – March 11, 2018.
New Details of Victoria Nuland’s Role in the Steele Dossier – March 14, 2018.
Victoria Nuland figures prominently in all three pieces, but Hunter and Joe Biden – along with the Atlantic Counsel – provided interesting roles as well.
From the March 11, 2018 article:
The Atlantic Counsel has been historically active in Ukraine through their Ukraine in Europe Initiative. More recently, on January 19, 2017, the Atlantic Counsel announced a partnership with Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Group.
Hunter Biden, former VP Joe Biden’s son, sits on Burisma’s board.
Biden was placed on Burisma’s board after Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt held a phone conversation regarding installation of Arseniy Yatsenyuk in place of then-Ukrainian President Yanukovych. Need of support from VP Biden was noted (more here):
On or before February 4 2014 – Call between Pyatt and Nuland discussing removal of Yanukovych and installation of Yatsenyuk.
February 22, 2014 – Yanukovych was removed as President of Ukraine.
February 27 2014 – Yatsenyuk was installed as Prime Minister of Ukraine. Yatsenyuk would resign in April 2016 amidst corruption accusations.
April 18 2014 – Hunter Biden was appointed to the Board of Directors for Burisma – one of the largest natural gas companies in Ukraine.
April 22 2014 – VP Biden travels to Ukraine and offers support and $50 million in aid for Yatsenyuk’s shaky new government.
It appears that Hunter Biden had a habit of turning up in regions where his father, Vice President Joe Biden, was conducting foreign policy meetings.
Hunter Biden’s partner, Devon Archer, also sat on Burisma’s Board. Archer is also a “Premier Member” of the Atlantic Council – a designation obtained by anyone via donation.
The Atlantic Council has some notable participants:
Victor Pinchuk – a Ukrainian billionaire with long-standing ties to the Clinton Foundation is on the International Advisory Board of the Atlantic Counsel
Dimitry Alperovich – the CEO of Crowdstrike that “investigated” the hacking of the DNC’s servers is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic.
James Clapper – Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, serves on the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board.
Evelyn Farkas – who famously disclosed the plan to disseminate information gathered on President Trump, is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Atlantic.
The Atlantic Council, along with the Brookings Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, were the subject of an unflattering portrayal in a New York Times article, Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks:
More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities.
The think tanks do not disclose the terms of the agreements they have reached with foreign governments. And they have not registered with the United States government as representatives of the donor countries.
As noted, the Atlantic Council has long been involved in the Ukraine.
Hunter Biden remains on the Board of Directors for Burisma. It appears that Archer is no longer a board member.
Both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer remain at Rosemont.
Rosemont is a private equity firm and is not required to report its dealing and holdings publicly. Obtaining specific details is difficult.
Based on the few details revealed thus far, I will be surprised if more overlaps between VP Biden’s foreign policy ventures and Hunter Biden’s investments don’t turn up soon.
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Digging required on NRG to tie it all together. <
NRG, Pelosi, Obama, Solyndra, Solar Reach are ALL connected.