【经济学人】风能先驱电池丨2017.06.10丨总第935期

ONE of Ignacio Galán’s early jobs as an engineer was to design lead-acid batteries for the milk floats that used to trundle around Britain’s streets. So the 66-year-old Spaniard, who heads Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest utilities, claims he has been thinking about the storage of electricity for his whole career. That is useful, because for the second time since he took over Iberdrola in 2001, the industry faces a fork in the road. This time round, the big debate in energy is about batteries and storage.

作为工程师，Ignacio Galán早期的一个工作是为在英国街道上行驶的送牛奶的马车设计铅酸电池。所以这位66岁的西班牙人，作为Iberdrola项目——世界上最大的公共事业项目之一的负责人，声称在他的整个事业里一直在考虑电能短缺的问题。这是很有用的，因为在他在2001年第二次接手Iberdrola这个项目的时候，这个行业正面临着分岔路口。这一次，关于能源问题的大争论主要集中在电池和存储方面。

The first time, Mr Galán blazed the right trail. He made a prescient bet on renewable energy, turning Iberdrola into one of the world’s biggest providers of onshore wind while at the same time underpinning returns with relatively safe, regulated electricity networks in America (Avangrid) and Britain (ScottishPower). Some European peers, such as Germany’s E.ON and RWE, took the opposite approach, prioritising conventional fossil-fuel-fired power plants in less regulated markets. In the past five years, the Germans have been through near-death experiences, and have belatedly created stand-alone renewables and grid businesses. Iberdrola’s share price has more than doubled.

第一次，格兰先生开辟了一条正确的道路。他对可再生能源有先见之明的确信，将伊维尔德罗拉公司成为世界上最大的陆上风力供应商，同时支撑其电力运行返回相对安全，控制着美国（avangrid子公司）和英国（ScottishPower子公司）的电力网络。但一些欧洲同行，如德国的E.ON和莱恩，采取了相反的做法。在不那么规范的市场里，他们优化传统化石燃料发电厂处。所以在过去的五年中，德国的公司经历了接近死亡的经验，迟迟才创造了独立的可再生能源和电网企业。而Iberdrola公司的股价却早已翻了一倍多。

• blaze  n.火焰；(感情的)迸发；记号  v.燃烧；传播；

• prescient 先见之明

• underpin 支撑

• prioritise 优化

• belatedly 迟来的

The renewables revolution has, in turn, caused the latest dilemma, because intermittent sun and wind require ways of storing electricity as a backup. Battery firms like Tesla, as well as some utilities, see a mixture of rooftop photovoltaics, home-mounted batteries and electric vehicles as the way of the future, with power being stored locally and new business models emerging to manage customers’ energy use remotely. But Mr Galán is sceptical that batteries can last long enough to handle intermittency, or that customers will care enough about distributed energy to make the domestic-battery business compelling. “I can’t imagine saying to my wife that we have a choice between a new fridge and the latest Powerwall battery.”

不过，因为间歇性的太阳和风能需要储存电力作为备份，所以可再生能源革命也带来了新的问题。像特斯拉这样的电池公司，以及一些公用事业公司，将屋顶太阳能电池、家用电池和电动汽车作为未来的一种混合方式，将电力储存在本地，这种新的商业模式可以远程管理客户的能源使用。但Galán先生则质疑电池是否可以持续足够长的时间来处理间歇性，或者消费者是否会关心国内电池行业中的核心问题——分布式能量。Galán先生指出“我无法想象告诉我的妻子，我们将在新冰箱和新Powerwall电池之间做出选择。”

• intermittent 间歇的；断断续续的

• compelling 引人注目的

Instead, he believes there is more to be gained by using renewable energy to pump water up to hilltop reservoirs, and letting it flow downhill to produce hydroelectricity when needed. Iberdrola has already done this with its successful $1.3bn Cortes La Muela project in Spain, completed in 2013. It is building a large pumped-hydro storage facility in northern Portugal. Mr Galán does not dismiss batteries altogether. But he thinks it would be better for utilities to deploy them to regulate the intermittency of electricity supply in substations, rather than putting them in homes.

相反，他认为通过利用再生能源将水抽到山顶水库会更有利，并在需要时让它流向山下来产生水电。2013年Iberdrola公司已经在西班牙花13亿成功地做完了Cortes La Muela项目。它正在葡萄牙北部建造一个大型抽水蓄能设施。Galán先生并没有忽略电池。但他认为对于公共事业来说，调动它们管理变电站供电的间歇性好过于把它们放在家里。

• hydroelectricity 水力电气

• substation 变电所；分局

His reservations about fully distributed electricity may be self-serving. If users buy batteries to help them cut loose from grids, network operators would have to raise prices to remaining customers, causing a “utility death spiral”. Yet it is probable that centralised electricity will survive, especially in big cities. And do not write off Iberdrola’s predictive powers. “They could see the future,” says Antonella Bianchessi of Citigroup.

他对全分布式电力的保留可能是自私的。（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）然而，集中供电很可能会幸存下来，尤其是在大城市。不要低估了Iberdrola的预测能力。花旗集团Antonella Bianchessi说“他们可以预见未来” 。

翻译 ▍E-J-2

审核 ▍CON

图文编辑 ▍璃儿

责任编辑 ▍毛毛