VOA常速英语2014--科学家研发降低碳排放街灯照明

 

Better Street Lighting¹ Lowers Carbon Emission 科学家研发降低碳排放街灯照明

A United Nations panel on climate change says global warming is causing extreme weather all over the world and is calling on governments to come up with new ideas to curb² gas emissions³. Since much of the air pollution comes from coal-fired power plants, scientists in Denmark are trying to lower their nation's energy needs with new types of smart streetlights.

Our increasingly industrialized world needs huge amounts of electrical energy, but our power plants still rely mostly on technology introduced as early as the 19th century-coal-powered plants, hydroelectric dams or somewhat newer nuclear energy, all of which have their own shortcomings.

我们日益增长的工业化世界需要大量的电能,但是我们的电厂仍然主要依靠燃煤发电厂、水电站等早在19世纪引进的技术或刚刚崛起的核能,但这些都有自己的缺点。

Renewable sources, such as solar plants and wind turbines, have just started making inroads in lowering harmful emissions, while safer fusion-based nuclear plants are believed to be many decades off.

而太阳能发电厂及风力涡轮机等可再生能源在降低有害排放方面刚刚起步,而更为安全基于聚变的核电站则被认为还要再等上几十年。

But scientists say we can slow down global warming by lowering energy demands for street lights.

但是科学家们表示我们可以通过降低路灯的能源需求减缓全球变暖。

These common features of the world's urban areas require a lot of electricity.

这些世界城市的共同特征就是需要大量电力。

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2012, lighting for buildings, streets and highways in the U.S. used about 274 billion kilowatt⁴ hours.

美国能源信息管理局估测2012年美国建筑、街道及高速公路的照明使用约2740亿千瓦时。

In a bid to make Copenhagen the world's first carbon-neutral city by 2025, scientists in the Danish capital are testing a variety of new street lighting technologies.

为了使哥本哈根到2025年成为世界上第一个碳排放为零的城市,位于丹麦首都的科学家们正在测试各种各样的街道照明新技术。

Kim Brostrom is the chief technical officer at the Danish Outdoor Lighting Lab.

丹麦户外照明实验室首席技术官金·布罗斯特姆说道。

“We have installed nine kilometers of streets, we have 280 masts placed here, we have 50 different solutions, we have 10 different management systems, and we have a lot of different sensors⁵ and things out in the open area."

“我们已经将这种技术应用在了9公里的街道上,我们在这里设置了280个线杆,我们有50种不同的解决方案,10种不同的管理系统,而且我们在开放的区域安置了很多不同的传感器。”

Chief science officer Jakob Andersen says the lights can be managed individually from a tablet computer or a smart phone.

首席科学官雅各布·安德森表示这些街灯可以通过平板电脑或智能手机单独管理。

“You can monitor the run time, the efficacy, the lumen output or the power consumption, and then we do real time measurements on the lux levels on the street level."

“你可以监视运行时长,效能,光强及电耗,而后我们在街道上进行照明等级的实时测量。”

The main goal is to lower energy consumption when the light is not needed. So the lamp brightens up only when it senses an approaching pedestrian, cyclist or vehicle. Some of them even have a backup wind generator⁶ or a solar cell.

主要目标是当不需要点亮街灯的时候降低能源消耗。所以灯只有在感觉到行人，骑自行车的人或车辆接近时才会亮起。有些灯甚至配置了备份风力发电机或太阳能电池。

Scientists say installing the smart lights city-wide could save up to 85 percent of the current budget for illuminating⁷ the Copenhagen streets.

科学家们表示安装全市智能灯光可以节省照亮哥本哈根街道当前高达85%的预算。

1 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

2 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

3 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。

4 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。

5 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

6 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

7 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。