首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
If Jim Dehlsen ever needs to remind himself why, at 67, he’s still trying to save the world, all he has to do is glance outside
If Jim Dehlsen ever needs to remind himself why, at 67, he’s still trying to save the world, all he has to do is glance outside
admin
2012-02-24
54
问题
If Jim Dehlsen ever needs to remind himself why, at 67, he’s still trying to save the world, all he has to do is glance outside his window. The offices of his three-year-old firm, Clipper Windpower, look across California’s tranquil Santa Barbara Channel and, in the distance, to the remote marine sanctuary of Santa Cruz island. Marring that view are eight oil rigs jutting into the ocean mist. In 1969 a well underneath one platform ruptured, releasing 200,000 gallons of crude into the harbor, coating beaches and killing thousands of birds. Today the oil rigs represent Dehlsen America’s dependence on fossil fuels. "We’re not only depleting those resources but reaching the limits of what the planet can absorb, in terms of emissions," he says. "And that is clearing the way for the return of wind power."
Not long ago wind power was the domain of fringe scientists and environmentalists. In the 1970s the idea of harvesting the wind’s kinetic energy and converting it into electrons was impractical: the first rickety, garage-built turbines often self-destructed in storms. The industry grew in the 80’s and 90’s, but wind was still too costly, generating power at more than 10 cents per kilowatt hour, versus less than five cents for coal and other fossil fuels. Even today, wind power feeds less than half of 1 percent of America’s ravenous energy appetite, and about 5 percent of Germany’s and Spain’s.
But the industry is maturing and growing quickly—and is beginning to find its place as one viable element in the energy puzzle. Dehlsen is one of its pioneers. His first wind company, Zond—founded in 1980 and sold to Enron in 1997—was synonymous with many early breakthroughs. The firm was the first to add wind energy to the California electricity grid and to bring scientific rigor to the locating of wind farms and the development of wind turbines. In recent years much bigger companies like General Electric, which bought what was left of Zond after Enron imploded, have entered the field. With rapidly improving technology and major corporate muscle behind wind power, costs are falling: wind contracts now average three cents per kilowatt hour (with tax subsidies), cheaper than coal and comparable to natural gas and oil. Because the wind is uncontrolled—it doesn’t always blow—the challenge is to drive costs down further. Still, says Bob Thresher of the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab, "wind is the first renewable technology that is very nearly competitive in the market for bulk power generation."
For his part, Dehlsen has returned to the fray with Clipper, which seeks to replay Zond’s original game plan: broker new wind farms around the world and use the revenues to fund advancements in wind technology. Clipper is currently opening farms, such as Iowa’s Flying Cloud, a 44-megawatt wind plant activated in July that will bring in a sizable piece of Clipper’s $11.5 million in revenues this year. Later this year Clipper will unveil its own envelope-pushing turbine design. The C93 Liberty is a 25-megawatt turbine with a rotor span of 305 feet; it features a sophisticated mechanism to distribute the torque from high-speed winds among four on-board electricity generators. That, Dehlsen boasts, will translate into the most efficient turbine in the industry, making wind power even more attractive when compared with new coal and natural-gas power plants. The new turbines are also optimized for use in moderate winds, which would allow wind farms to be located closer to transmission grids than they typically are today. GE and others are working on similar advances, including larger machines for offshore sites.
Politics, as much as innovation, will govern the future. While European governments heavily subsidize wind production, the United States still funnels far greater resources into tax breaks for oil companies, and has even recently allowed the wind-production tax credit to expire. (Dehlsen and others think Congress will eventually renew the wind tax credit.)
But Dehlsen thinks the key is increasing cost efficiency, so that the attraction of wind becomes irresistible. Dehlsen says the cost of wind needs to fall below three cents per kilowatt hour—without tax credits—to truly break society’s addiction to fossil fuels. "It’ s still not there, but we’re getting close," he says. He’s trying to build on the $18 million he has already raised from investors, and to expand. He plans to open a wind farm in Oaxaca, Mexico, the largest in Latin America, and in 2006 Clipper will introduce a new turbine with retractable rotors, so that the size of the turbine can be altered to match the speed of the wind. (In low winds, longer blades are more productive.) As for the future of the planet, Dehlsen is less sanguine. He plies a visitor with tracts on dire climate trends and America’s insatiable thirst for fossil fuels. The evidence, he says, is right outside his window.
Dehlsen’s first wind company did the following except ______.
选项
A、It helped the costs down.
B、It helped the development of wind turbines.
C、It helped make use of wind power in California.
D、It started research on the location of wind firms.
答案
A
解析
本题考察对第三段的理解。戴尔森的第一家风能公司,是“the first to add wind energy to the California electricity grid and to bring scientific rigor to the locating of wind farms and the development of wind turbines.”故选项B、C和D与原文相符,故排除;选项A并未提及,故为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hsiO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thedeclineinmoralstandards--whichhaslongconcernedsocialanalysts---hasatlastcapturedtheattentionofaverageAmerica
Thedeclineinmoralstandards--whichhaslongconcernedsocialanalysts---hasatlastcapturedtheattentionofaverageAmerica
Thedeclineinmoralstandards--whichhaslongconcernedsocialanalysts---hasatlastcapturedtheattentionofaverageAmerica
HowtheSmallpoxWarWasWonTheworld’slastknowncaseofsmallpoxwasreportedinSomalia,theHornofAfrica,inOctober
WhichofthefollowingwriterswaseverappointedasPoetLaureate?
我一直以为大学校长是高瞻远瞩、指导学术与教育大方向的决策人,而不是管馒头稀饭的保姆,但这也暂且不提。这一类型的教育者的用心,毋庸置疑,当然是善意的。问题是,我们论“事”的时候,用心如何根本不重要,重要的是实际的后果,而教育的后果何其严重!在这种过度呵护的幼
Shelley’smasterpiece,.PrometheusUnbound,isaversedrama,whichborrowsthebasicstoryfrom______.
AuthorEmmaHeathcote-Jameshasspentnineyearslookingintoreal-lifeghoststories,collectingtalesfromhundredsofpeople
Atpresentcompaniesandindustriesliketosponsorsportsevents.Tworeasonsareputforwardtoexplainthisphenomenon.Thef
Themagnetfortourists,thesymbolofthecity,Manhattanisprobablythemostdeceptiveoftheboroughstooutsiderswhogener
随机试题
为社会和家庭操劳了大半辈子,晚年与天真活泼的孙辈相伴,享受中国式“儿孙满堂”的天伦之乐,以获得心理上的平衡与精神上的慰藉。这是祖辈参与学前儿童家庭教育的()
十进制153转换成二进制数应为()。
设计阶段的HSE管理具体内容包括()。
泵站起重设备的起重量≤5t,主泵台数()时,选用手动单梁起重机。
以下各项中,不属于变革障碍中私人障碍的是()。
已知二次型f(x1,x2,x3)=(1-a)x12+(1-a)x22+2x32+2(1+a)x1x2的秩为2.求正交变换x=Qy,把f(x1,x2,x3)化成标准形;
设f(x)在[0,+∞)上连续,在(0,+∞)内可导且满足f(0)=0,f(x)≥0,f(x)≥f’(x)(x>0),求证:f(x)≡0.
Youaretowriteinnolessthan120wordsaboutthetopic"Doweneedashoppingcenterintheneighborhood?"Yourcomposition
Tobesuccessful,abusinessneedstobeawareofits______andweaknessascomparedwithitsopponents.
Wheredomanystampcollectorsgoinordertobuynewstamps?Theygotothe______.
最新回复
(
0
)