Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy minister

Re:Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy mi... by Intermernet on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @06:49AM (#11526070)

> Wind generators cause harm to birds

This is an often repeated exaggeration.

The Australian government did a study on this[1] as it was claimed that the Orange-bellied Parrot (an endangered species) was at risk from wind farm developments. They concluded:

"The potential threat that wind farm developments in Tasmania, western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia pose to the Orange-bellied Parrot has been quantified in the Wind farm Birdstrike Cumulative Risk Assessment Report (Smales et al. 2005). The assessment report concluded that the predicted annual cumulative mortality rate from all the wind farms modelled corresponds to an additional Orange-bellied Parrot mortality of around one bird per year."

The full study. "Wind farm collision risk for birds" can be found at [2].

[1]: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspe...

[2]: http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/2d42fcb...

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Re:Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy mi... by ageofwant on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @09:26AM (#11526733)

Which can also be alleviated by reducing the local cat population by 0.2%

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Re:Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy mi... by Intermernet on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @09:44AM (#11526850)

I once drove from Sydney to Cooktown (according to Google, 30hrs over 2720.4km, which sounds about right) and horribly managed to kill 2 birds, 1 wombat and 1 wallaby. I'd hate to think what the truck transport industry kills with every single trip compared to this apparent risk from wind-farms.

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Re:Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy mi... by ageofwant on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @10:20AM (#11527120)

Last month I drove from Launceston to Scottsdale, I stopped counting dead wallabys at I recon about 120 (pademelons propably, hard to tell if their spread so thin). Many of those were in pairs, a bigger smear, followed by a smaller, joey-sized smear... Amazingly I only almost killed one, and managed to drive over a echidna (missed him)

Took the fun edge of an otherwise very pleasant island trip.

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Re:Solar is now cheaper than some coal, says India energy mi... by ageofwant on Tuesday April 19, 2016 @10:29AM (#11527195)

A colleague recalls a trip from Perth to Port Hedland on a overnight bus when she was doing picking up north as a student. Bus has a formidable roo-bar. During the night she was constantly woken up by annoying "pings" from the front. Early morning se got off at a stop to take a piss and witnessed the driver hosing of the roo bar. Something he did at most stops up.

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