密歇根新闻广播 风车虽好看但没人愿意建了

 

Michigan has 883 operating wind turbines.

There's been a big push for wind farms since 2008. That was when lawmakers decided¹ a certain amount of our electricity must come from renewable resources, and utilities built wind turbines to comply.

The cost of building wind farms has fallen dramatically since then. But nobody is rushing to put up more turbines.

In fact, the man who has developed the wind farms we have in northern Michigan says his enthusiasm for wind is waning².

Marty Lagina used to drill for natural gas. His new company, Heritage Sustainable Energy in Traverse City, builds wind farms and Lagina has been surprised by how angry it makes the neighbors.

"We thought we were doing something really good," he says. "We still do, but to be the target of these vicious attacks, it gets old pretty quickly."

Heritage has been sued in both counties where it has built wind farms, and also has filed one lawsuit³ of its own.

The most recent suit against the company claims turbines on the Garden Peninsula in the U.P. are a threat to human health and the lives of birds.

Lagina finds some criticisms of wind energy ridiculous, but he will acknowledge there are issues, like the noise.

"They make some sound and to some people, at least ostensibly, it's very aggravating," he says.

Even though the cost of building a wind farm today is less than half of what it was when he started about five years ago, Lagina isn't sure it's worth the trouble.

"The wind industry is sort of on the cusp of being the low-cost producer," he says. "But the big obstacle went from price to this pushback."

But pushback from the neighbors is not the only problem. Not everyone in the electricity business thinks wind is a good deal. Dan Dasho at Cloverland Electric Cooperative in Sault Ste. Marie is one skeptic⁴.

"I've talked to a lot of people who are thinking about projects, but they could find no one to buy the output," he says.

Cloverland supplies electricity to the eastern U.P., and Dasho says the cooperative will be looking to burn natural gas to meet its electricity needs in the future. Dasho says the problem with wind is it doesn't blow all the time.

"So what do you do for the rest of the time?" he asks. "Well, you've got to have a gas generator⁵ to back up that wind. So the cost of wind isn't just the wind generator, it's wind plus gas, so you have the capacity there when you need it."

Looking inland

Wind proponents⁶ contest that math. Skip Pruss was the state's chief energy officer in the Granholm Administration and now has a consulting business called 5 Lakes Energy. Pruss says all energy generators⁷ need backup, and the electricity is fed into a common market.

"Every generating source, whether it's a coal plant, a natural gas plant or a wind farm or a solar farm, that is backed up by other generation sources," he says.

And Pruss says the cost of backing up wind power is negligible.

He says people living in coastal⁸ areas like Benzie County and Leelanau County may never warm up to wind farms. But he says new studies have shown the wind blows better than they thought in the center of the Lower Peninsula.

"We can build a lot more wind capacity in central Michigan, in agricultural areas where wind becomes the most reliable revenue stream and crop or harvest for farmers," he says.

But even some farming communities are tired of windmills. Most wind farms in Michigan are in Huron County. Earlier this month, the county approved a moratorium⁹ on new ones.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 waning   

adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡

参考例句：

• Her enthusiasm for the whole idea was waning rapidly. 她对整个想法的热情迅速冷淡了下来。
• The day is waning and the road is ending. 日暮途穷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

4 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

5 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

6 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

7 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

9 moratorium   

n.(行动、活动的)暂停(期)，延期偿付

参考例句：

• The government has called for a moratorium on weapons testing.政府已要求暂停武器试验。
• We recommended a moratorium on two particular kinds of experiments.我们建议暂禁两种特殊的实验。