More than 100 birds have been injured during testing of a new solar power farm.

Biologists say 130 birds caught fire mid-air while entering an area of concentrated solar energy created by the 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nevada.

Experts believe the birds may have been attracted by the glow of the farm’s tower, but the project’s owners, SolarReserve, say they have found a way to reduce the fatalities.

Biologists say 130 birds have caught fire in mid-air while entering an area of concentrated solar energy created by the 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project (pictured) near Tonopah, Nevada

The solar project is close to being completion and is set to go launch next month.

Thousands of mirrors focus sunlight onto one central tower to melt salt inside it, which will in turn heat water so that steam will turn turbines to generate electricity.

At its peak, the project will produce 110 megawatts of electricity, which will be sold to NV Energy – a firm that powers the majority of homes in Nevada, Rewire reported.

In a test, one third of the project’s 10,000 mirrors were moved to focus sunlight at a point 1,200 feet above ground level – at approximately twice the height of its tower.

It took biologists just an hour and a half to notice the first of the ‘streamers’ – birds that catch fire and leave a trail of smoke in the air -when entering the field of solar energy.

Experts think the birds may have been attracted by glow of the farm’s tower, but the project’s owners, SolarReserve, say they have found a way to reduce the fatalities. A scorched bird found near another solar farm in California ia shown

At its peak, the project (marked on the map), based near Tonopah, will produce 110 megawatts of electricity, which will be sold to NV Energy – a firm that powers the majority of homes in Nevada

Some 130 birds were injured during the tests, which began on January 14, Rudy Evenson, deputy chief of communications for Nevada Bureau of Land Management in Reno, told Rewire.

In a subsequent test, fewer mirrors were aimed at the focal point above the tower and this reduced the avian casualties. SolarReserve says it has now put mitigation measures in place.

‘Over the last 30 days of commissioning activities, which includes extended periods of flux [sunlight] on the tower, the Crescent Dunes project has only experienced a single (one) avian fatality attributed to the solar facility’ SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith said.

A spokeman told MailOnline: 'Once it was communicated to SolarReserve that there were avian safety issues, action was immediately taken to halt testing in order to evaluate the situation and prevent further issues.

'Our engineers worked diligently to successfully modify our testing methods and develop innovative mitigation procedures that have proven to resolve the identified avian safety issues.

'Importantly, we’re sharing the new safety methods with the solar tower industry so that changes can be made to protect wildlife and move forward with this revolutionary technology.'

He said that the site was also carefully selected to have the minimal effect on wildlife, 'with avian safety one of out top priorities'.

'This careful site selection resulted in zero desert tortoises on site and no current identified wildlife issues.'

A report last year found that tens of thousands of birds flying over California are being scorched to death each year by powerful sun beams from the world's largest solar plant – the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.

Some 130 birds were injured during the tests, which began on January 14, Rudy Evenson, deputy chief of communications for Nevada Bureau of Land Management said. They are known as streamers because of the smoke trails people can see as they fly. This 'streamer' was found at Ivanpah solar plant in California

INNOVATIVE, POWERFUL, HI-TECH: BUT IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT NEEDLESSLY DEADLY? The $2.2 billion (£1.32 billion) Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System launched last February at Ivanpah Dry Lake near the California-Nevada border. More than 300,000 mirrors, each the size of a garage door, reflect solar rays onto three boiler towers each looming up to 40 stories high. The water inside is heated to produce steam, which turns turbines that generate enough electricity for 140,000 homes. Sun rays sent up by the field of mirrors are bright enough to dazzle pilots flying in and out of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a 'mega-trap' for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their death in the intensely focused light rays. Federal and state biologists call the number of deaths significant, based on sightings of birds getting singed and falling, and on retrieval of carcasses with feathers charred too severely for flight. Ivanpah officials dispute the source of the so-called streamers, saying at least some of the puffs of smoke mark insects and bits of airborne rubbish being ignited by the solar rays. Advertisement

Estimates per year range from a low of about a thousand by BrightSource Energy - the operator of a solar farm in the Mojave Desert - to 28,000 by an expert for the Centre for Biological Diversity environmental group.

'The deaths are alarming. It's hard to say whether that's the location or the technology,' said Garry George, renewable-energy director for the California chapter of the Audubon Society. 'There needs to be some caution.'

The plant has been monitoring the number of bird carcasses found on its grounds during periodic studies, but there are fears that because the solar farms appear to be capable of vapourising birds as large as ravens in mid-air, the full extent of the problem may not come to light in the surveys.

Mr George believes that authorities should track birds on during annual migratory seasons, before opening any more solar projects.

Solar farms have been also been criticised for their impacts on desert tortoises.

Last summer, US Fish and Wildlife Service officials warned California that the power-tower style of solar technology holds 'the highest lethality potential' of the many solar projects burgeoning in the deserts of California.