VOA慢速英語:美國能源部發(fā)起能源獎競爭

Experts say that sun and wind are the richest sources of clean, renewable energy. But ocean waves also create powerful, clean energy. So, the U.S Department of Energy has announced a $1.5 million-dollar prize for the winner of a competition on how to capture that energy.

有專家指出太陽能和風能是最富有的清潔和可再生能源。但是海浪也可以創(chuàng)造強大的清潔能源。所以美國能源部宣布將撥款150萬美元獎勵給能夠掌控這股能源力量的人。

The Department of Energy says that waves and tides along U.S. coasts create about 1,420 terawatt-hours of energy a year. That is equal to the amount of energy produced by more than 330 nuclear power factories.

能源部稱美國海岸的海浪和潮汐能夠創(chuàng)造每年大約1420萬億瓦時的能量。這相當于330多個核能源工廠產生的能量。

But today's technologies can only capture about 20 percent of the energy from ocean waves. Jose Zayas is the director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the Department of Energy. He says 20 percent is too low for an investment in ocean wave energy to be economical. He says it needs to be up in the high 30 percent to 40 percent.

但是現在的技術只能從海洋能量中獲取20%的能量。Jose Zayas是能源部風能和水能技術辦公室的主任。他說20%的能源對于海洋能源投資的經濟回報來講太少。他還說，能源利用率要提高到30%到40%。

"...we believe that once you achieve that then the economic competiveness of this industry really comes to life and that's really the target that we are shooting for."

我們認為一旦達到了要求該行業(yè)的經濟競爭才能真正服務于生活，這才是我們真正的目的所在。

The Department of Energy has launched the Wave Energy Prize competition to encourage development of new technologies.

能源部已經啟動了海浪能源獎項來鼓勵人們發(fā)展新技術。

But developing new devices to capture wave energy can be difficult. Wave capture machines must operate in oceans

但是發(fā)展可以吸收海浪能源的設備是非常困難的。海浪能源設備必須安置在海洋里。

Competition organizers expect most of the new ideas to come from established energy companies as well as some universities and research centers. Mr. Zayas says testing the new technologies will be done in several steps using scaled models. A scaled model is a smaller form of a larger object or structure.

比賽組織者預計大部分新想法會來自于能源公司和一些學校和研究中心。Zayas說新技術測試將會采用比例模型經過幾個階段來進行。比例模型是按照比例將較大物體或者結構縮小之后的物體或結構。

"We would have 1/50th scale testing where we would do the first fundamental evaluation of their performance, as well as making sure that they are on a pathway that can assure them success towards a prize...and near the end, we will have about 10 teams, it is our hope."

我們將采用五十分之一的比例模型來對其性能做出評估，同時確保能夠測試成功贏得獎項，在差不多最后階段，我們希望能有10個隊伍。

The scaled models will be tested at the United States Navy's large indoor testing pool near Washington. Machines at the pool can create ocean-size waves. Mr. Zayas says the models will be tested to show how much ocean wave energy they can capture.

這個比例模型將會在華盛頓附近美國海軍的大型室內游泳池里進行測試。泳池內的機器將會創(chuàng)造出海浪大小的波動。Zayas說模型將會被測試看看到底能夠吸收多少海浪能源。

The competition will not require the machines to produce electrical power. He says changing the mechanical kinetic energy into electrical energy is easy.

比賽不需要機器產生電能。他說機械動能轉電能是非常容易的。

Mr. Zayas says the main goal of the Wave Energy Prize is to develop a new set of power producing technologies for the future. Developers of the best performing devices will receive prizes from $250,000 to as much as $1.5 million.

Zayas說海浪能源獎項設立的主要目的是為未來開發(fā)一項新能源產生技術。能夠生產出最好設備的開發(fā)人員能夠獲得250000美元到150萬美元的獎勵。

I'm Jonathan Evans.

George Putic reported this story from Washington. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver edited it.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

assure – v. to make something certain

encourage – v. to make someone more determined, hopeful or confident

evaluation – n. a test

fundamental – adj. forming or relating to the most important part of something

kinetic – adj. of or relating to the movement of physical objects

terawatt - n. a unit of power equal to one trillion watts