2015年经济学人 太阳能发电厂 蓝色的钢铁海洋

Solar farms

Blue steel

British fields adopt a new crop

TWO nuclear bombs are among many curious machines which the Science Museum stores at an old airfield¹ in Wiltshire.

An early hovercraft stands with a fleet of submersibles and a truck that once roamed the Antarctic.

Now a new acquisition is on the way. Around the runway workers are preparing to lay out 155,000 solar panels—at about 170 acres,

one of the biggest solar farms in Britain.

Though Britain's hillsides are peppered with wind turbines, solar panels produce less than half of one percent of its power.

Racing² to hit a European target that requires it to generate 30% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020,

the government wants a lot more. Gregory Barker, an energy minister, says the solar industry could expand sixfold within a decade.

Laid on the ground, that many panels would fill an area of about 150 square miles.

Fields full of solar panels are less obtrusive³ than hillside turbines, and simpler to install.

Whereas opposition⁴ to wind power is mounting, about 85% of Britons back new solar projects.

Big arrays may even encourage some kinds of wildlife, for example by sheltering ground-nesting birds.

It is also getting cheaper. The cost of installing solar panels has fallen by half since 2010 due to heavy deployment⁵ in Germany and elsewhere.

Weak British sunlight makes energy from solar farms about 25% more expensive than from onshore wind turbines—and more than twice the wholesale⁶ price of power—but the government expects a 20% reduction by 2020.

Solar companies say ministers must do more. Planners, fearing eyesores, are growing less co-operative

(complaints from rural campaigners are holding up the Science Museum's array).

Grid⁷ connections are getting more expensive as developers choose sites ever farther from big towns.

The biggest fear is of government backsliding.

In January ministers said they will soon require solar farms to bid against onshore wind projects for some subsidies⁸.

Yet caution is wise, for two reasons. First, hefty investment in sunnier countries means the price of panels will keep falling without much help from British taxpayers⁹;

government cash might go much further in a year or two.

Asian competition means Britain's firms are unlikely to become successful solar manufacturers, no matter how much money is thrown at them.

Second, the price of solar panels reflects only part of the technology's costs.

Panels produce very little power during winter; in summer they can generate too much.

The National Grid, which manages Britain's power-transmission network,

says that a big solar programme would mean finding extra cash to mitigate¹⁰ these swings in supply.

A preponderance of panels is already making it difficult to build more farms in the sunny south-west.

If Britain is serious about hitting its legally-binding target for renewable generation, more solar seems inevitable¹¹.

But the roofs of offices, factories and warehouses¹² are the best places for it.

Putting panels there lowers energy bills for businesses while placing less strain on local grids¹³. That seems a brighter idea.

1 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

2 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

3 obtrusive   

adj.显眼的；冒失的

参考例句：

• These heaters are less obtrusive and are easy to store away in the summer.这些加热器没那么碍眼，夏天收起来也很方便。
• The factory is an obtrusive eyesore.这工厂很刺眼。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

7 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

8 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

10 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。

11 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

12 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

13 grids   

n.格子( grid的名词复数 )；地图上的坐标方格；（输电线路、天然气管道等的）系统网络；（汽车比赛）赛车起跑线

参考例句：

• Typical framed structures are beams, grids, plane and space frames or trusses. 典型构架结构为梁、格栅、平面的和空间的框架或桁架。 来自辞典例句
• The machines deliver trimmed grids for use or stock. 这种机器铸出修整过的板栅，以供使用或储存。 来自辞典例句