印度使用太阳能带来光和热

AS IT IS 2015-10-13 India to Bring Light and Heat with Solar Energy 印度使用太阳能带来光和热

Hundreds of villages in rural India are using clean energy powered by the sun.

This month, 61 households in the village of Baripatha in eastern India were given two solar lamps. Villagers had been using kerosene¹ lamps at night. Kerosene produces pollution and can lead to fires.

The Indian government wants to increase the use of solar energy by 500 percent in the next seven years. If it is to reach that goal, 100 gigawatts of power must come from solar by 2022. Now, just 4 gigawatts of power created in the country come from the sun. 

Officials say they want to slow the amount of greenhouse gas emissions². India is now the third-largest producer of this gas. The gas contributes to climate change.  

Arunabha Ghosh is the head of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a policy research group in New Delhi.

He says “in terms of the share of electricity capacity that Germany achieved through renewables, that transition³ took about 22 years for Germany. In India’s case, which is a much poorer economy, India is planning to have a similar shift towards renewable energy and non-fossil energy” within 15 years.

India’s goal may be helped by the decreased cost of developing solar energy. The government says it wants investors⁴ to spend $100 billion over seven years in solar power. It is reducing taxes for some solar-related investments. And it is permitting non-Indians to invest.

This week, Germany said it would spend more than $2 billion on solar projects in India. SunEdison, an American renewable-energy company, says it wants to invest $15 billion. SoftBank, a Japanese company, has announced it will partner with companies in India and Taiwan to spend up to $20 billion on solar energy projects. Trina Solar, a Chinese company, plans to spend $500 million to make solar panels⁶. 

Some people in India are worried that there is not enough land for some of these projects. Many of the projects need large plots of land.

Inderpreet Wadhwa created a company called Azure⁷ Power. It was one of the earliest investors in solar projects. He said most of them are being built in dry areas of the country, on land that cannot be farmed.

“You are not displacing⁸ any alternative use of land,” he said, “especially if you are building in remote areas in Rajasthan for example.”

Meanwhile, India continues to dig for coal to provide energy. It says it hopes to double production in five years. India says it needs such plants. It says one quarter of its 1.2 billion people still do not have electricity. Some Indian towns and cities still do not have reliable electricity for their people.

Environmental activists⁹ warn that the use of the new coal-fueled power plants means that India will continue to increase the amount of carbon pollution it produces for many years.

But environmental researcher Arunabha Ghosh notes that “people don’t seem to recognize that it is not a question of will more coal be built or not. It is a question of how (many coal-fueled power centers are) not going to be built because of these aggressive (solar) targets. We are going from about eight to 13 percent of renewable energy in mid-century to 30 percent by 2030.”

China and the United States have set deadlines to reduce carbon they send into the air. But India has not. It has only set a goal of slowing the increase of pollution it creates, not reducing the total.

Indian officials note that the amount of pollution the country creates is far lower compared with countries like the United States.  

Words in This Story

emissions – n. something sent out or given off

capacity – n. the largest amount that a factory or company can produce or manage

renewables – n. something that is restored or replaced by natural processes or able to be replaced by nature

transition – n. a change from one state or condition to another

shift – n. a change in how something is done or how people think about something

solar panel⁵ – n. a large, flat piece of equipment that uses the sun’s light or heat to create electricity

remote – adj. far away from other people, houses or cities

reliable – adj. able to be relied on; to expect (something) with confidence; to be certain that (something) will happen or exist

aggressive – adj. ambitious; not easily done or achieved

1 kerosene   

n.(kerosine)煤油，火油

参考例句：

• It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
• Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 panel   

n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘

参考例句：

• The unusual control panel on the walls caught our attention.墙上不同寻常的控制板引起了我们的注意。
• The panel of judges included several well-known writers.评判小组中包括几位知名作家。

6 panels   

镶板( panel的名词复数 )； 面； （门、墙等上面的）嵌板； 控制板

参考例句：

• One of the glass panels in the front door was cracked. 前门的一块方玻璃破裂了。
• Make sure the panels are treated with a wood preservative. 确保镶板用木材防腐剂处理过。

7 azure   

adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的

参考例句：

• His eyes are azure.他的眼睛是天蓝色的。
• The sun shone out of a clear azure sky.清朗蔚蓝的天空中阳光明媚。

8 displacing   

移动( displace的现在分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• The face of Big Brother swam into his mind, displacing that of O'Brien. 他的脑海里浮现出老大哥的脸，代替了奥勃良的脸。 来自英汉文学
• Leukemias typically fill up the marrow with abnormal cells, displacing normal hematopoiesis. 典型的白血病有很多不正常的细胞充满骨髓，取代正常的造血功能。

9 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》