安省绿色能源仍是污染源

 

 

 

许多人都认为安装在自家屋顶的太阳能电池板可以直接为他们供应家庭用电。但实际上无论有没有价格高昂的存储系统，太阳能电池板所产生的电力都因为太不可靠且不能有效存储，而无法满足家庭的用电需求。不过安装太阳能电池板的家庭会有两个独立的电表, 一个（像其他家庭所安装电表一样）用于测量电力消耗，另一个则是记录输入电网的太阳能发电量。平均来说，一个普通四口之家每月用电量为800千瓦时，而大部分住宅屋顶太阳能电池板的发电量低于10千瓦。

Many people think that the solar panels installed on their roofs will supply electricity directly for their home use. The solar electricity generated is simply too unreliable and cannot be efficiently stored to supply the needs required by a house, with or without an expensive storage system. There are two independent meters instead – one to measure the consumption (as in other houses) and another one to record power being fed into the power grid. A typical family of four people uses, on average, 800 Kwh per month and most residential rooftop units are of under 10Kw capacity.

 

安省的太阳能计划分为两部分：发电量介于10千瓦至500千瓦的FIT（固定价格）项目和发电量低于10千瓦的microFIT项目。住宅太阳能电池板设备属于microFIT项目，而商业建筑的大型屋顶或大型露天场所则属于FIT项目。有许多无力购买和安装太阳能电池板设备的场所则会出租自己的屋顶或开放场地。

 

Ontario’s solar program is made up of two streams: FIT (Feed-in Tariff) for projects between 10 Kw and 500 Kw, and microFIT for projects up to 10 Kw.The residential solar panel installations fall under the microFIT program. For the FIT Program, large rooftops on commercial structures or large open fields are involved. Many of these places cannot afford the capital cost of purchasing and installing a solar panel project simply rent out their rooftops or open areas instead.

 

如果忽略太阳能电池板制造过程中所产生的二氧化碳排放量，太阳能很容易被视为完全“清洁”的能源。太阳能电池板的制造方法和电脑芯片如出一辙，都需要历经污染严重的能源密集型加工过程。这些生产过程不仅会造成空气污染和重金属排放，还会消耗能源，而这又会导致更严重的空气污染，并会增加重金属和温室气体排放量。虽然太阳能电池板所产生的温室气体排放量只有可生成同等电量的化石燃料的十分之一，但太阳能电池板并非是完全“清洁”的！

 

It is easy to declare solar energy as a form of completely “clean” energy when the carbon dioxide burden it carries during manufacturing is ignored. Solar panels are manufactured very similar to computer chips which are dirty and energy-intensive processes. These processes produce air pollution and heavy metal emissions, and they consume energy - which brings about more air pollution, heavy metal emissions and also greenhouse gases. While making solar panels generates ten times less greenhouse gases as generated by fossil fuel for the same amount of electricity, solar panels are not totally “clean”!

 

“绿色能源法”的另一个主要参与者是风力发电行业。风力发电的概念和太阳能发电类似，但是由于风力发电设备需占用更多空间，因此无法安装在住宅后院里。

 

Another major player in the “Green Energy Act” is the windmill sector. Similar to the solar energy concept, windmills simply take up more spaces but one cannot place these units in residential backyards. 

 

由于风力发电设备占地太大且成本高昂，因此通常都是由企业而不是普通居民承担运作。目前安装的大部分商用规模风力涡轮机额定发电量都是2兆瓦，安装成本约为$300万至$400万元。安省目前在运作中的风力涡轮机（发电总量）超过2650兆瓦。综合来看，这一发电量大约相当于3个各自发电量为878兆瓦的达灵顿反应堆的总和。目前安省的核电发电总量约为13144兆瓦。

Windmill projects are taken up by Corporations and not by private citizens due to their scope and costs. Most of the commercial-scale turbines installed today are 2 MW in size and cost roughly $3-$4 million for installation. In Ontario, there are over 2650MW (generating capacity) of windmills working now. To put this into proper perspective, this capacity is the rough equivalent of 3 Darlington Reactors at 878 MW each. The total Nuclear power generation capacity in Ontario is about 13144MW.

 

风电的反对者就“风电场”向其所在社区内扩张的计划提出诸多质疑，其中一些问题如下：

 

Opponents to windmills have presented a number of issues to the expansion of “wind farms” into their communities. Some of these are as follows: 

 

1）导致大量鸟类和蝙蝠死亡—相关研究所估计的鸟类和蝙蝠死亡数量各不相同，从每台风力涡轮机每天杀死一只到每年只杀死30只鸟说法不一，要看统计以及死鸟收集的方法而定。风力涡轮机的转速可高达每小时180英里。风力涡轮机的支持者可能会辩称建筑物和通信塔每年杀死的鸟类和蝙蝠数量要比这多得多。但反对者也可以称如果从一开始就没有设立这些风力涡轮机，这种情况完全可以避免！

 

1) Killing of birds and bats – the estimates are varied from one study to the next. It ranges from one bird a day for each turbine to just 30 a year depending on how the statistics and dead birds are collected. Wind turbines can have rotating speeds of up to 180 miles per hour. Some arguments used by wind turbine supporters will be that buildings and communication towers killed a much larger number of birds and bats every year. A counter argument can also be made that these will be avoidable if the windmills are not built in the first place!

 

2）持续不断的背景噪音—在声称对风力涡轮机的噪音水平十分满意的居民中，有很多都是通过出租土地等方式从风电项目中获得直接经济收益的人。45分贝的噪音相当于从隔壁房间传来的谈话音量，而这些受访者却称对如此高分贝的持续不断的背景噪音毫不在意，但其他人却表示哪怕是比图书馆耳语声还低的30分贝及以下噪音都会让他们不胜其扰。

 

2) Constant Background noises - a significant number of those residents who reported perfect contentment with the noise levels of the turbines were also deriving direct economic benefits from the power the windmills were producing such as leasing of their land. At 45 decibels – roughly the volume of a conversation heard from the next room – the constant background noise did not bother these respondents at all, while others reported annoyance at levels of 30 decibels and below – less than the volume of a library whisper.

 

目前，安省环境部已经收到数百宗涉及风力涡轮机的健康投诉。其中至少有一家私营风电公司因为被指危害居民健康而惹上$150万元的官司。提起诉讼的家庭指责附近的风力涡轮机导致他们出现如下症状：“虚弱眩晕，睡眠障碍，头疼耳鸣以及紧张抑郁，甚至产生自杀的念头。”

 

In Ontario, the Ministry of the Environment has received hundreds of health complaints related to wind turbines. At least one private wind company has been hit by a $1.5 million lawsuit over alleged health impacts. The family who launched the lawsuit have blamed nearby wind turbines for the following : “debilitating vertigo, sleep disturbance, headaches and ringing in the ears, as well as stress, depression and even suicidal thoughts.”

 

下一次，我们将继续论述安省的风电项目。

 

We will continue to look into the Windmill programs in Ontario next time.