評論
打印
Fact 1:The primary ingredient of most solar panels is purified sand.
真相1:大部分太陽能聚光板的主要原料都是純化過的沙礫。
Fact 2:Enough sunlight hits the Earth in an hour to provide all of humanity's energy needs for a year.
真相2:充分照射地球一小時的太陽能總量足夠人類們一年所需。
So why isn't solar power cheap and abundant?
為什么這些便宜的太陽能不能為我們所用呢？
For starters, building a device capable of turning incoming photons into electricity isn't cheap.
就啟動裝置而言，建造能吸收光子能量轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)殡娔艿脑O(shè)備并不便宜。
Add in installation and the cost of a solar system can still be more than $10 per watt of electricity produced.
而且將現(xiàn)有設(shè)備改進(jìn)增加這類裝置以及包括購買的這個普通的太陽能收集轉(zhuǎn)換系統(tǒng)后也的用電花費也會超過每度電10美金。
That's much higher than the cost per watt from burning coal or natural gas.
顯然這個價格比燃燒煤炭和天然氣的花費高很多。
It's going to take further technological breakthroughs to make photovoltaics cheaper.
而為了使光伏發(fā)電成本降低，還需要進(jìn)一步技術(shù)上的重大革新。
That’s the conclusion of a report from Lux Research, a firm that advises emerging technologies.
這是主攻新興科技及產(chǎn)品的Lux研究公司一項研究報告所得出的結(jié)論。
New developments could include growing pure silicon wafers rather than sawing them from long ingots; or even fundamental shifts in the physics employed, like using so-called black silicon or quantum dots.
新的發(fā)展方向應(yīng)該包括生成純硅晶片而不是重塑形狀或甚至改變它們已生成的原始物理基本特征，比如采用被稱為黑色硅晶或量子態(tài)顆粒。
Of course, if all energy sources paid their full price, solar would be more competitive.
當(dāng)然，如果綜合計算所有的現(xiàn)有人類可用能源，太陽能還是比較有競爭力的。
After all, making solar panels doesn't result in nearly as much mercury, CO2 and other pollution as spewed by coal-fired power plants.
畢竟，制造一塊太陽能聚光板并不會造成燃煤火力發(fā)電工廠向周圍環(huán)境中噴射水銀，二氧化碳溫室氣體和其它污染物那樣的嚴(yán)重后果。
If the health and environmental costs of coal or natural gas were included in their prices, suddenly solar might look a whole lot cheaper.
如果煤炭或天然氣所帶來的健康和環(huán)境消費也被算入成本的話，你會突然發(fā)現(xiàn)太陽能真的非常便宜。
