During the testing of the solar tower, the Solar Energy Project killed more than a hundred birds.

Biologists who observed the beginning of the testing of the Crescent Dunes solar tower recorded the death of more than 130 birds caught in the powerful light emitted by 10,000 mirrors. The bird literally turned into a tail of smoke and a cloud of water vapor, just burning on the fly. This forced the project's engineers to change the location of the mirrors in order to reduce the power of the flow of sunlight (solar flux) and avoid danger to birds.

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, developed by SolarReserve, is a tower about 160 meters high, surrounded by 17,500 heliostats. The mirrors are located on the area of ​​a circle with a diameter of about 3 km and with a collected solar radiation they heat a special tank at the top of the tower, where the coolant is located - molten salt. In the dark, heated to 1000 degrees salt falls down the tower, where it heats the water to a state of steam, which is used in the production of electricity. The power of the solar tower to the beginning of its industrial exploitation should be 110 megawatts. The Crescent Dunes project is located in the Nevada desert about 310 km from Las Vegas, so there are almost no problems with sunny days.

Engineers began testing the tower on the morning of January 14 of this year, using about a third of the existing heliostats. The process of up to three o'clock in the afternoon was observed by many specialists, including employees of the local department for environmental protection (Environmental Protection Agency). It was the experts from among them who noted an unusual phenomenon - the birds, attracted by the bright solar radiation, carelessly flew into its stream, literally turning into dust in the open. They did not stop testing, however, in the biologists' report, the fact of the death of birds in the amount of about 130 pieces was reflected. Later, SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith also said that about a week earlier, another 150 birds had died while preparing the tower for testing.

The Crescent Dunes project is designed to supply electricity to Las Vegas from noon to midnight, so the power of the solar tower is calculated accordingly. Nevertheless, the problem with birds turned out to be serious enough for the project engineers to change the layout of the heliostats. The power of solar radiation was reduced by distributing it over a larger area in order to avoid such a massive death of birds.