风力发电背后的肮脏秘密

 

 

 

由于风力涡轮机在风平浪静的日子里无法全年如一地旋转不停，因此必须通过天然气发电厂来支持风电。为了确保电网供电平衡，防止因风电供应常常出人意料地中断而导致停电，天然气发电厂一直在背后马不停蹄地运转着。

It is necessary to have gas generating stations to back up wind power because windmills are unable to deliver enough energy on calm days. These gas generating stations run constantly in the backgound to balance the electricity grid and prevent blackout when wind power output collapses on a routine but unpredictable basis.

 

安省自由党一直声称他们将使用风力和太阳能发电替代燃煤发电，但实际上取而代之的是核电厂和天然气发电厂。这也导致自由党省府在上上次省选之前爆出天然气发电厂丑闻，当时自由党在某种程度上为了支持时断时续的风力和太阳能发电，而不得不建造更多天然气发电厂，但是为了避免选票流失和保住选区席位，他们最终又取消了位于奥克维尔和密西沙加的天然气发电厂。

The Provincial Liberals claimed that they will replace coal-fired electricity with wind and solar power. Instead, it was done with nuclear power plants and natural gas generating plants. That led to the gas plants scandal two elections ago when they planned to build more gas plants in part to back up intermittent wind and solar power but cancelled them in Oakville and Mississauga to avert voting loses and to save riding seats.

 

据安省审计长Bonnie Lysyk称，安省逾90%风电项目合同都被授予安省自由党的主要政治献金捐款者。和太阳能电池板项目合同一样，风电项目合同也是一签就是20年，并且同样也能让业主赚得盆满钵满。

According to Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk, over 90% of Windmill contracts are given to major political funding contributors to the Provincial Liberal Party. Windmills contracts are also made into 20 year deals like solar panel contracts and almost just as lucrative for their owners.

 

在风力涡轮机输出第1瓦电力之前，其制造周期间所消耗的数千吨钢材和混凝土“必会产生”的二氧化碳排放量就高达数千吨。平均来说，一个风力涡轮机需消耗45吨钢筋和481立方米混凝土，由此产生的碳足迹为241.85吨二氧化碳。这个数字远远高于同样为20年使用寿命的燃煤发电厂生成同等电量所产生的二氧化碳排放量，而在这其中甚至还未包括建造向电网传输电力所必需的数千座架线塔以及数万公里输电线所产生的碳足迹。

Before a windmill generates its first watt of power, it clocks up thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions “embedded” in thousands of tonnes of steel and concrete during their manufacturing cycle. An average windmill consumes 45 tons of reinforcement steel bars and 481 cubic metres of concrete producing a carbon footprint of 241.85 tons of carbon dioxide. This figure will exceed the carbon emissions for the same amount of power generated by a coal-firing plant over the same life span of 20 years. We have not even included the carbon footprint for the manufacture of the thousands of pylons and tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission wire needed to get the power to the grid.

 

此外，每个风力涡轮机还配有一个由2500公斤金属钕制成的磁体部件。由于钕的开采和提炼过程相当肮脏并且有毒，其中涉及反复酸煮，并且会产生放射性废产物金属钍，目前只有一个国家——中国在从事相关制造生产。

Every wind turbine also has a magnet made of 2500 Kg of a metal called neodymium. The mining and refining of neodymium is so dirty and toxic – involving repeated boiling in acid, and with radioactive thorium as a waste product – that only one country does it – China. 

 

目前，Ontario Hydro回购安省风电的价格是每千瓦时13.5分。以一台发电效率为27%的2兆瓦风力涡轮机为例，其每年可产生4730兆瓦电力，就可以给业主带来$638,604元收入。2兆瓦风力涡轮机的安装成本约为$400万至$500万元，其中包括$76万元设备安装地的租恁费用。

A windmill in Ontario receives 13.5 cents a kilowatt hour (earlier figures) from Ontario Hydro . With a capacity of 2Mw and an efficiency of 27%, it will produce 4730 Mw in a year and generating $638,604 for its owners. The windmill will cost roughly $4-5 million to complete, including $760,000 to lease the land where it is located. 

 

在这些成本中并未包括设立以备风速震荡或停止时填补供电缺口的支持工厂的费用。但风力涡轮机数量越来越多也意味着需要更多可以快速启动的天然气发电站，这些发电站即便不运作，也需要花钱维持待机状态。

Not counted in these costs is the price of having backup plants standing by to fill in the gaps when wind speeds oscillate or die. Increasing numbers of wind turbines require more quick-starting, gas-fired generating stations, which are paid to be on standby even if they’re not operating.

 

在风电项目结束后会发生什么？尽管租约通常会规定届时风力发电场的设备和道路必须拆除，同时土地也必须恢复原样，但土地所有者仍常常担心开发商会违约或是消失无影踪，从而给他们留下满目疮痍的庞大废机器。因此有些租约会要求开发商提供履约保证金，以确保有钱完成收尾工作。

What will happen when a windmill project ends? The lease will provide for the removal of the wind farm structures and roads as well as the restoration of the soils. A frequent fear of landowners is that the developer will default or dissolve, and the landowner will be left with huge, inoperable machines littering the property. Some agreements require a performance bond from the developer to ensure that money is available to pay for decommissioning.

 

在风电项目租约谈判中，最困难的部分就是土地复垦。拆卸风力涡轮机需要动用专门的起重机。而拆除使用逾40立方码混凝土制成的庞大基座更是费用高昂。

Land reclamation is one of the most difficult parts of a wind-power lease negotiation. Windmills require specialized cranes to dismantle. And the massive foundations with over 40 yards of concrete are expensive to remove.

 

在了解安省《绿色能源法》的两个主要部分后，我们得出的结论是虽然太阳能发电板设备相比燃煤发电厂可以减少碳足迹，但使用风力发电并不会减少碳排放量。并且这两种发电项目在20年期满停运后都会产生有可能造成环境危害的处置问题。

After looking at the two major components in Ontario's Green Energy Act, we can come to the conclusion that carbon emissions are not decreased when it comes to the use of Windmills, while the Solar panel systems will achieve a savings in the carbon footprint when compared to coal-firing generating stations. In both cases, the decommissioning of projects at the end of the 20 year life span will create disposal issues that can have environmental impacts.