【经济学人】风能的逆袭|2017.04.22|总第883期

PEAT has a lot to recommend it. It imparts a delicious flavour to whiskey. It emits an agreeable aroma when burned. It is a cheap source of energy; at its simplest it involves no more than digging by hand. Ireland, which has bogs full of the stuff, uses it for 6% of its energy.

泥炭有很多可取的地方。它散发着给威士忌般可口的味道。燃烧时发出宜人的香气。它是一种廉价的能源，从最简单的角度来说，它用手工挖掘足以。爱尔兰的沼泽里富含泥炭原材料，泥炭能源的使用占其总能源的6%。

But peat is also one of the dirtiest fuels available, emitting 23% more carbon dioxide than coal. Ireland is unusual among developed countries in burning it for energy on an industrial scale. A geological precursor to coal, it has been used on the island for at least 1,000 years. But it may at last be on its way out as Ireland turns to another energy source of which it has unlimited quantities: wind.

但泥炭也是最脏的燃料，它比炭多排放23%的二氧化碳。在发达国家中，爱尔兰燃烧泥炭来获取工业能源的做法也是与众不同的。煤炭，作为一种地质前体，它在爱尔兰岛上已经使用了至少1000年。但是，随着爱尔兰转向使用另一种取之不尽的能源:风能，它可能最终会被淘汰。

• Scale： n.规模;比例（尺）;鱼鳞;级别

            vt.测量;攀登;刮去…的鳞片

            vi.衡量;攀登;（鳞屑）脱落;生水垢

Galway Wind Park, in the remote, soggy hills of Connemara facing the Atlantic Ocean, will be Ireland’s largest wind farm when it is completed this summer, generating 169MW of power at peak capacity, or about 3% of Ireland’s average needs. Some turbines are already generating electricity. It is only the latest development in Irish wind power, which has tripled in the last decade to more than 3GW of capacity. The renewable resource now provides a quarter of the electricity Ireland consumes every year. Eirgrid, a state-owned company which manages the grid in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, says much more wind capacity is in the planning stages.

在遥远的康内马拉面朝大西洋潮湿山脉的Galway Wind公园，将于今夏建成爱尔兰最大的风电场，发电最大容量为169MW，这大约是爱尔兰用电需要平均的3%。一些涡轮机组已经开始发电。这仅是爱尔兰风力发电的最新进展，是过去十年的3倍，发电容量超过3GW。现在每年提供爱尔兰电力消耗的四分之一是可再生资源。（期待您的翻译，明天将会有针对这句话的长难句翻译哦~）

• capacity：adj.充其量的，最大限度的
  

                   n.容量;性能;才能;生产能力

Wind is difficult to manage because it is unpredictable, even on the blustery shores of western Ireland. Since wind turbines do not turn consistently, the grid must be carefully tuned to keep it stable. One way around this is to export excess power that takes the grid beyond the point of stability. This is the trick used by Denmark, amongst others, whose grid is linked to those of Germany, Sweden and Norway.

风力是很难管理的，因为它是不可预测的-即使是在大风呼啸的爱尔兰西部海岸。由于风力发电机的不一致，输网格必须调整好以保持稳定。解决这一问题的方法之一是输出多余的电力，使电网超出稳定的程度。。这是丹麦使用的技巧，即使输电网格与德国，瑞典和挪威相似。

Ireland already has two connections to Britain. At night, these cables provide hundreds of megawatts of Irish wind power to its neighbour. Eirgrid is planning a cable to continental Europe. A report from SEAI, Ireland’s energy authority, suggests that the island could generate enough wind electricity to match domestic demand by 2030, with more left over to export. That would be good timing. Bord na Móna, the body responsible for developing Ireland’s peatlands, has said it will stop extracting peat for electricity by the same year.

爱尔兰与英国已经有两种连接方式。晚上，这些电缆向邻国提供了数百兆瓦的爱尔兰风力发电。Eirgrid表明计划要将电缆延伸至到欧洲大陆。SEAI报道称，爱尔兰的能源部门表明岛上可以产生足够的风电提供给国内需求直到2030年（包含更多用以输出的过剩产能）。这将是一个好时机。负责开发爱尔兰的地区已表示将停止同年提取泥炭来发电。

• Megawatts  n.兆瓦，百万瓦特（电能计量单位）

• Domestic adj.国内的;家庭的，家的;驯养的;热心家务的

翻译 ▍甜甜，沙漠下雨，倚南窗，eve

审核 ▍向北

背景 ▍甜甜

图文编辑 ▍毛毛

责任编辑 ▍毛毛