VOA慢速英语2014 卢旺达开办东非最大的太阳能发电厂

 

Rwanda Opens Biggest Solar Power Plant in East Africa 卢旺达开办东非最大的太阳能发电厂

The biggest solar power factory, or plant, in East Africa recently opened in Rwanda. Solar power is produced from sun light. The plant is in Agahozo Shalom village in eastern Rwanda. The plant is the first of its kind in the area. The 21-hectare field, or solar park, is covered with special devices called panels. They store energy from the sun. 

Until last month, South Africa was the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have a large amount of solar power for its grid¹, or total power supply.

The Agahozo solar plant produces up to 8.5 megawatts of electricity. That is nearly seven percent of the total power supply in the country. The government has signed a power purchase agreement, or PPA, to pay for that electricity over the next 25 years.

Dan Klinck owns the business that built the solar plant. He explains why Rwanda is leading the way for solar power in East Africa.  

"Rwanda’s doing a number of things right. I mean one, security. It is a place where people can trust their PPA’s for 25 years…geo-political stability, Rwanda probably is the most attractive place in East Africa. And Rwanda’s regulatory framework - no corruption². It is a very, very transparent³ system."

The exact price the Rwandan government will pay for the electricity from the Agahozo plant is confidential⁴, or secret. But sources tell VOA the price is between 20 and 25 U.S. cents per kilowatt⁵. Experts say that is about twice as costly⁶ as most hydropower plants. Those are factories that produce electricity from moving water.

But Rwanda still gets nearly half its electricity from diesel⁷ fuel. Electricity produced from diesel costs 38 cents per kilowatt in Rwanda. Solar power fluctuates, or, changes often. The Rwandan government does not want more than 10 percent of the country’s power from solar energy. However, that 10 percent is needed to save on diesel. Dan Klinck says solar power is much faster to set in place than other kinds of energy sources, like hydropower.

"A typical hydropower project you would say takes two years of development.  With solar we took the site in February and it was completed and already giving electricity in July. So we are talking six months versus⁸ two years."

Villagers who were farming on the area of the current solar plant look forward to the electricity. But many will have to wait years to connect to the solar power grid.

For many of those rural residents, solar home systems with panels attached to the top of homes may be an answer. The German company Mobisol says they can offer Rwandans a system that powers several lamps, a phone charger, a flashlight and a radio. The cost of the power system is $10 a month over three years.

One Mobisol representative says 80 percent of Rwandan families can pay that amount.

Klaus Maier is in charge of the Mobisol office in Rwanda. He believes that Rwanda is a good place to have a solar park. He says that solar panels do not work well if they get too hot. Rwanda averages only five hours of sunshine per day.

The Agahozo solar park has more than 28,000 solar panels and was built at a cost of $23.7 million.  

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

3 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

4 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

5 kilowatt   

n.千瓦

参考例句：

• They pay thirty fen per kilowatt hour.他们每度电付三角钱。
• The watt is a small unit of power so that we use the kilowatt instead.瓦特是小功率的单位，因此我们用千瓦代之。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

8 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。