[2008.07.19] 风力发电：透平时代

Wind power
风力发电

Turbine time
透平时代

Jul 17th 2008 | AUSTIN
From The Economist print edition

T. Boone Pickens takes to the skies
布恩•皮肯斯指望天空

A rosy future for wind
风能的瑰丽前景

AMERICANS spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil. According to one observer, this is an addiction, a crisis, and a trap. The country must pursue alternative energy sources as fiercely as it once shot for the moon. So far, so much liberal boilerplate. The critic in question, however, is a Republican oilman: T. Boone Pickens. As he puts it, in an Okie drawl: “I’ve been an oilman all my life. But this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.” He wants America to make a huge investment in wind-power infrastructure. During this election season, he will personally spend $58m to make the case.
美国人每年在进口石油上的花费是7000亿美元。一位观察员认为，此乃是一种毒瘾，一场危机和一个困境。同当年探月一样紧急，国家必须寻求可替代能源。到目前为止，已出现多种自由争论。不过，正在质疑的批评家是共和党的一位石油大亨：布恩•皮肯斯（T. Boone Pickens）。皮肯斯以俄克拉荷马州的长腔表示：”我一生都在从事石油方面的工作。不过，这是一种钻不到出路的紧急情况”。他希望美国在风力发电的基础设施作出巨大投资。在本次选举赛季中，皮肯斯个人将出资5800万来支持此事。

Mr Pickens’s interest is not solely altruistic. His company, Mesa Power, has already invested $2 billion to build the world’s largest wind farm in Pampa, a small town in the Texas panhandle. He told a Senate committee in June that he is going to pay for the transmission lines that will carry Pampa’s power to the Dallas area because he cannot wait for the state to build the infrastructure. As he likes to point out, he is 80 years old and worth $4 billion. So profit is not the only issue, either.
皮肯斯先生的盎然兴味并不单单是利他主义。他的企业美萨电力（Mesa Power）已投资20亿美元在位于德州狭长地带的潘帕（Pampa）小镇建立世界上最大的风力发电场。在6月份,皮肯斯曾告诉一名参议院委员，由于等不及国家去投资兴建基础设施，他本人将支付从潘帕到达拉斯地区输电线路的费用。正如他所喜欢说的，自己已经年高80，而且有着40亿美元的身价，所以，利润对他而言并不是唯一的决定因素。

A report from the Department of Energy said in May that America could build enough wind farms to provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030. The Pickens plan calls for America to meet this goal by building wind farms throughout the windy corridor that runs up the country from Texas to the Dakotas. It would cost $1 trillion to build them, plus another $200 billion to connect them to places where the power is most needed, which lie inconveniently far away from the corridor.
能源部5月份的一份报告指出，美国到2030年可建立足够多的风力发电场,能够为国家提供20％的电力。为实现这一目标,皮肯斯计划呼吁美国在德克萨斯州到达科他州这个多风长廊上建设多个风力发电场。这需要花费1万亿美元，此外，联网那些电力亟缺但又远离风廊的边远地区，还需要2000亿美元。

That is a staggering outlay, but it would free up American natural gas, which now generates 22% of the country’s electricity, to be used for motor vehicles. The idea is that Americans could switch en masse to natural gas vehicles, and the country could stop importing so much oil.
这是一项巨大的支出，但它将会节省用来生产占国家电力22%的天然气，从而将之用于天然气汽车。该想法就是，美国可使公众换用天然气汽车，以及国家不用再进口如此多的石油。

As a bonus, says Mr Pickens, the industry would create jobs and revitalise rural America. He points to the west Texas town of Sweetwater to prove his point. Ten years ago it was just one more struggling speck on the prairie. Its only excitement was an annual rattlesnake round-up. Then the wind industry started to take hold in west Texas and the panhandle. Locals initially fretted that the turbines would be too noisy. They also worried that they would mar the vast horizon. Other west Texans are less enamoured of the original view. “The landscape is an eyesore,” counters a man from Groom.
皮肯斯先生表示，风力发电行业带来的回报是：创造就业机会，振兴美国农村。他还以德州西部的斯威特沃特镇（Sweetwater）来证明自己的观点。十年前，斯威特沃特镇只是一个在北美草原上苦苦挣扎的弹丸之地。唯一令人兴奋的事情只是斯威特沃特镇一年一度举办的响尾蛇聚会（rattlesnake round-up）。在德克萨斯州西部和这一锅柄（panhandle）地带，风力发电业已开始展开行动。当地人最初警告说，涡轮机将会产生过多噪音。有些德州西部民众担心涡轮机会阻碍广阔视野的延伸。而其他德州西部对原有看法不再迷恋。”景观看上去颇不顺眼，”Groom的一名男子反驳说。

In any case, the turbines look nicer as the benefits accrue. In 1999 the state’s wind power capacity was just 180 megawatts. Today Texas leads the nation with almost 5,000. Most of that is concentrated in the north-western quarter of the state. The economic impact on Nolan County, which encompasses Sweetwater, will be $315m this year. Wind has brought more than 1,000 new jobs to town.
不管怎样，随着涡轮机带来的好处越来越多，人们看这些机器也是越来越顺眼。在1999年，国内风力发电量仅有180兆瓦。今天，德州以将近5000兆瓦的风力发电量在国内遥遥领先。风力发电大多是集中在美国的西北部地区。在今年，诺兰县（Nolan County）的经济（含斯威特沃特镇）因风力发电而获得的利益将达到3.15亿美元。此外，风力发电行业已带来1000多个新职位。

This boomlet has made an impression on Texans. Wind power accounts for 3% of the state’s electricity, compared with 1% nationwide. But the tax credit that has been driving its growth is about to expire. And then there is the question of the creaking grid. The state is mulling a plan that would enable the transmission of 17,000 additional megawatts at a cost of $6.4 billion.
这一繁荣使人对德州留下深刻印象。德州的风力发电占国内电力的3％，而全国的平均水平只是1％。不过，一直驱动本州经济增长的税收抵免即将结束。然而，水平参差不一的电力网还存有问题。国家正在考虑一项计划：以耗资64亿美元的费用来确保输电能力额外增加17000兆瓦。

Building wind power capacity will not be an easy task. But there is an emerging agreement in Texas that it is worth the trouble. That is where Mr Pickens can make a difference. His plan is undeniably quirky. Its emphasis on natural gas is strange, for one thing: America does not have many natural gas vehicles. But if Mr Pickens wants to use his own fortune to sell the general public on the idea of wind power, that is all to the good. No one can accuse him of being a soft-headed tree-hugger.
创建风力发电设施不是一件容易的事情。不过，就风力发电值得努力尝试上，德州刚刚达成一致,而这也就是皮肯斯先生所能够发挥的作用。皮肯斯的计划颇为稀奇古怪，这倒是不可否认。首先，令人奇怪的是该计划的侧重点在天然气上：美国国内还没有很多天然气车辆。当然，如果皮肯斯先生想要利用自己的财富向公众兜售风力发电的理念，那完全也有好处。毕竟，无人会去指责他是一位稀里糊涂的环境保护狂。

译者：captain21   http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12872&extra=page%3D1