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每日英語跟讀 Ep.K267: As Solar Farms Grow, So Does Resistance

Hecate Energy, a renewable energy developer, had hoped to install a 500-acre solar farm in Copake, New York, a quiet town nestled between the Catskill and Berkshire mountains. The setting was ideal because of its proximity to an electrical substation, critical to the power transmission.

美國再生能源公司「赫卡特能源」曾想在紐約州卡茲奇山和波克夏山之間的寧靜小鎮科佩克，建置500英畝的太陽能電場。這個地點很理想，因為靠近變電所，這對傳輸電力至關重要。

But after facing an outcry from some in the community who feared the installation would mar the bucolic setting, Hecate scaled back its plans.

但在部分居民擔心太陽能電場會破壞田園景觀而強烈抗議後，赫卡特縮減了電場規模。

“We heard loud and clear,” said Diane Sullivan, Hecate’s senior vice president for environmental and permitting. “People felt that the project was too large, and they wanted us to shrink it down.”

赫卡特環境許可事務資深副總裁黛安．蘇利文說：「我們聽得清清楚楚。居民覺得電場太大，希望我們把它縮小。」

Hecate cut the size of the planned development to 245 acres, which it says will still produce the 60 megawatts of electricity in the original design.

赫卡特把計畫中的電場縮小到占地245英畝，並表示電場仍能依當初設計產生60百萬瓦電力。

The Copake fight mirrors similar battles raging in rural areas like Lake County, Oregon; Clinton County, Ohio; and Troy, Texas. Developers say industrial-scale solar farms are needed to meet the nation’s goals to mitigate the rise of climate change, but locals are fighting back against what they see as an encroachment on their pastoral settings, the loss of agricultural land and a decline in property values.

類似科佩克的角力也在美國其他鄉村地區上演，如俄勒岡州萊克郡、俄亥俄州柯林頓郡和德州特洛伊市。開發商說需要工業級太陽能電場，才能達成美國減緩氣候變遷的目標，但當地人抗拒，認為電場會破壞田園景致，使農地變少和房地產價格下跌。

Until recently, most farms were built in the West, where abundant sunshine powers industrial-scale solar arrays and installations were farther away from sight lines. But now, with federal and state governments committing to a reduction in fossil fuels, joined by corporate giants like Amazon and Microsoft, the industry is seeking solar installations in areas where the calculus is more complicated.

直到不久以前，美國多數太陽能電場建置在西部，那裡有充足的陽光讓工業級太陽能電池陣列和設施發電，而這些設施遠離人們的視線。不過如今，由於聯邦和州政府都承諾少用化石燃料，亞馬遜和微軟等企業巨擘也如此，太陽能產業正尋求在考量因素更複雜的地方設置電場。

In the first half of this year alone, developers installed 5.7 gigawatts of solar capacity, for a total of 108.7 gigawatts of capacity, sufficient to reach 18.9 million U.S. homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

根據美國太陽能產業協會的資料，單是今年上半年，開發商新建置的太陽能電場總發電量就達5.7百萬瓩，目標是新建電場總發電量達108.7百萬瓩，以供應美國1890萬戶電力。

“Typically, 5 to 7 acres are needed to create 1 megawatt of power,” said Matt Birchby, co-founder and president of Swift Current Energy, a solar developer that is working on a proposal for Clark County, Kentucky.

正規劃在肯塔基州克拉克郡建電場的太陽能公司「史威夫特克倫能源」共同創辦人兼總裁伯奇比說：「通常需要5到7英畝地，才能生產1百萬瓦電力。」

Finding appropriate sites with sufficient sunlight, proximity to the grid and up-to-date infrastructure is challenging.

要找到陽光足夠、靠近電網又有最新基礎設施的適當地點，並不容易。

Approximately 0.5% of U.S. land would need to be covered with solar panels to achieve the decarbonization goals proposed by the Biden administration in April. Urban settings usually lack enough space for significant projects; as a result, 90% of the suitable land sits in rural areas.

要達到拜登政府4月提出的減碳目標，美國大概需要0.5%的土地被太陽能板覆蓋。都會區往往沒有足夠空間可建置大型電場，所以適合建置的區域有90%落在鄉村。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5887408