高中英語閱讀理解拓展之風力發(fā)電

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　　Wind Energy -- Energy from Moving Air

　　Wind is simple air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the earth surface by the sun. Since the earth surface is made of very different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun heat at different rates.

　　During the day, the air above the land heats up more quickly than the air over water. The warm air over the land expands and rises, and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating winds. At night, the winds are reversed because the air cools more rapidly over land than over water.

　　In the same way, the large atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the earth's equator is heated more by the sun than the land near the North and South Poles.

　　Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is called a renewable energy source because the wind will blow as long as the sun shines.

　　The History of Wind

　　Since ancient times, people have harnessed the winds energy. Over 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used wind to sail ships on the Nile River. Later, people built windmills to grind wheat and other grains. The earliest known windmills were in Persia (Iran). These early windmills looked like large paddle wheels. Centuries later, the people of Holland improved the basic design of the windmill. They gave it propeller-type blades, still made with sails. Holland is famous for its windmills. American colonists used windmills to grind wheat and corn, to pump water, and to cut wood at sawmills. As late as the 1920s, Americans used small windmills to generate electricity in rural areas without electric service. When power lines began to transport electricity to rural areas in the 1930s, local windmills were used less and less, though they can still be seen on some Western ranches.

　　The oil shortages of the 1970s changed the energy picture for the country and the world. It created an interest in alternative energy sources, paving the way for the re-entry of the windmill to generate electricity. In the early 1980s wind energy really took off in California, partly because of state policies that encouraged renewable energy sources. Support for wind development has since spread to other states, but California still produces more than twice as much wind energy as any other state.

　　The first offshore wind park in the United States is planned for an area off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts (read an article about the Cape Cod Wind Project).

　　How Wind Machines Work

　　Like old fashioned windmills, today wind machines use blades to collect the wind kinetic energy. Windmills work because they slow down the speed of the wind. The wind flows over the airfoil shaped blades causing lift, like the effect on airplane wings, causing them to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator to produce electricity.

　　With the new wind machines, there is still the problem of what to do when the wind is blowing. At those times, other types of power plants must be used to make electricity.

　　Wind Power Plan

　　Wind power plants, or wind farms as they are sometimes called, are clusters of wind machines used to produce electricity. A wind farm usually has dozens of wind machines scattered over a large area. The Big Spring Wind Power Project in Texas has 46 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 7,300 homes.

　　Unlike power plants, many wind plants are not owned by public utility companies. Instead they are owned and operated by business people who sell the electricity produced on the wind farm to electric utilities. These private companies are known as Independent Power Producers.

　　Operating a wind power plant is not as simple as just building a windmill in a windy place. Wind plant owners must carefully plan where to locate their machines. One important thing to consider is how fast and how much the wind blows.

　　As a rule, wind speed increases with altitude and over open areas with no windbreaks. Good sites for wind plants are the tops of smooth, rounded hills, open plains or shorelines, and mountain gaps that produce wind funneling.

　　Wind speed varies throughout the country. It also varies from season to season. In Tehachapi, California, the wind blows more from April through October than it does in the winter. This is because of the extreme heating of the Mojave Desert during the summer months. The hot air over the desert rises, and the cooler, denser air above the Pacific Ocean rushes through the Tehachapi mountain pass to take its place. In a state like Montana, on the other hand, the wind blows more during the winter. Fortunately, these seasonal variations are a good match for the electricity demands of the regions. In California, people use more electricity during the summer for air conditioners. In Montana, people use more electricity during the winter months for heating.

　　Wind Production

　　All together, wind machines in the United States generate 17 billion kWh per year of electricity, enough to serve 1.6 million households. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Chicago, but it is only a small fraction of the nation's total electricity production, about 0.4 percent. The amount of electricity generated from wind has been growing fast in recent years, tripling since 1998. New technologies have decreased the cost of producing electricity from wind, and growth in wind power has been encouraged by tax breaks for renewable energy and green pricing programs. Many utilities around the country offer green pricing options that allow customers the choice to pay more for electricity that comes from renewable sources.

　　Wind machines generate electricity in 30 different states. The states with the most wind production are California, Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wyoming.

　　The United States ranks third in the world in wind power capacity, behind Germany and Spain. Most of the wind power plants in the world are located in Europe and in the United States where government programs have helped support wind power development.

　　Wind and the Environment

　　In the 1970s, oil shortages pushed the development of alternative energy sources. In the 1990s, the push came from a renewed concern for the environment in response to scientific studies indicating potential changes to the global climate if the use of fossil fuels continues to increase. Wind energy offers a viable, economical alternative to conventional power plants in many areas of the country. Wind is a clean fuel; wind farms produce no air or water pollution because no fuel is burned.

　　The most serious environmental drawbacks to wind machines may be their negative effect on wild bird populations and the visual impact on the landscape. To some, the glistening blades of windmills on the horizon are an eyesore; to others, they are a beautiful alternative to conventional power plants.

　　風能——來自移動空氣的能量

　　風是運動中的簡單空氣。它是由太陽不均勻地加熱地球表面造成的。由于地球表面由不同類型的陸地和水組成，它以不同的速率吸收太陽熱量。

　　白天，陸地上的空氣比水面上的空氣升溫更快。陸地上的暖空氣膨脹上升，較重的冷空氣沖進來取而代之，形成風。在晚上，風是反向的，因為空氣在陸地上比在水面上冷卻得更快。

　　同樣地，環(huán)繞地球的大的大氣風是因為地球赤道附近的陸地比南北兩極附近的陸地更容易被太陽加熱而產(chǎn)生的。

　　如今，風能主要用于發(fā)電。風被稱為可再生能源，因為只要陽光照耀，風就會吹。

　　風的歷史

　　自古以來，人們就利用風能。5000多年前，古埃及人用風在尼羅河上駕駛船只。后來，人們建造風車來碾磨小麥和其他谷物。已知最早的風車是在波斯(伊朗)。這些早期的風車看起來像大槳輪。幾個世紀后，荷蘭人民改進了風車的基本設(shè)計。他們給了它螺旋槳式的葉片，仍然用帆制成。荷蘭以風車聞名。美國殖民者用風車碾磨小麥和玉米，抽水，在鋸木廠砍柴。早在20世紀20年代，美國人就在沒有電力服務(wù)的農(nóng)村地區(qū)使用小型風車發(fā)電。上世紀30年代，當電力線開始向農(nóng)村地區(qū)輸送電力時，當?shù)氐娘L車使用越來越少，不過在一些西方牧場上仍然可以看到風車。

　　20世紀70年代的石油短缺改變了這個國家和世界的能源狀況。它引起了人們對替代能源的興趣，為風車重新進入發(fā)電領(lǐng)域鋪平了道路。20世紀80年代初，風能在加利福尼亞州真正興起，部分原因是加州鼓勵使用可再生能源的政策。對風能開發(fā)的支持已經(jīng)擴展到其他州，但加州的風能產(chǎn)量仍然是其他州的兩倍多。

　　美國第一個海上風電場計劃建在馬薩諸塞州科德角海岸附近的地區(qū)(閱讀一篇關(guān)于科德角風電場項目的文章)。

　　風力機的工作原理

　　像老式的風車一樣，今天的風力機使用葉片來收集風能。風車工作是因為它們減慢了風速。風在翼型葉片上流動，引起升力，就像對飛機機翼的影響一樣，使它們轉(zhuǎn)動。葉片與驅(qū)動軸相連，驅(qū)動軸轉(zhuǎn)動發(fā)電機發(fā)電。

　　有了新的風力機，還存在著風吹時該怎么辦的問題。那時，必須使用其他類型的發(fā)電廠發(fā)電。

　　風力發(fā)電計劃

　　風力發(fā)電廠，或有時被稱為風電場，是用來發(fā)電的風力機集群。一個風電場通常有幾十臺風力機分散在一個大的區(qū)域。德克薩斯州的大春風電項目有46個風力渦輪機，它們產(chǎn)生的電力足以為7300戶家庭供電。

　　與發(fā)電廠不同的是，許多風力發(fā)電廠并非由公用事業(yè)公司所有。取而代之的是，它們由商人擁有和經(jīng)營，他們將風力發(fā)電廠生產(chǎn)的電力出售給電力公司。這些私營公司被稱為獨立發(fā)電商。

　　操作風力發(fā)電廠并不像在有風的地方建一個風車那么簡單。風力發(fā)電廠所有者必須仔細規(guī)劃機器的位置。需要考慮的一個重要問題是風速有多快。

　　一般來說，風速隨著海拔高度和沒有防風林的開闊地區(qū)而增加。風力發(fā)電廠的好地點是平滑的圓形山丘、開闊的平原或海岸線以及產(chǎn)生風漏斗的山間隙的頂部。

　　全國各地風速不一。它也因季節(jié)而異。在加州的特哈查比，從4月到10月的風比冬天刮得多。這是因為夏季莫哈韋沙漠的極端高溫。沙漠上空的熱空氣上升，太平洋上空更冷、密度更大的空氣沖進特哈查皮山口取而代之。另一方面，在蒙大拿州這樣的州，冬天風刮得更多。幸運的是，這些季節(jié)變化很好地滿足了這些地區(qū)的電力需求。在加利福尼亞，人們在夏天用更多的電來開空調(diào)。在蒙大拿州，人們在冬季用更多的電取暖。

　　風力發(fā)電

　　美國的風機每年總共發(fā)電170億千瓦時，足以服務(wù)160萬戶家庭。這足以為芝加哥這樣大的城市提供電力，但它只占全國總發(fā)電量的一小部分，約為0.4%。近年來，風力發(fā)電量增長迅速，自1998年以來增長了兩倍。新技術(shù)降低了風力發(fā)電的成本，可再生能源稅收減免和綠色定價計劃也鼓勵了風力發(fā)電的增長。全國各地的許多公用事業(yè)公司都提供綠色定價方案，讓客戶可以選擇支付更多來自可再生能源的電力。

　　風力機在30個不同的州發(fā)電。風力發(fā)電最多的州是加利福尼亞州、德克薩斯州、明尼蘇達州、愛荷華州和懷俄明州。

　　美國的風力發(fā)電能力位居世界第三，僅次于德國和西班牙。世界上大多數(shù)風力發(fā)電廠都位于歐洲和美國，在那里，政府項目幫助支持風力發(fā)電的發(fā)展。

　　風與環(huán)境

　　20世紀70年代，石油短缺推動了替代能源的發(fā)展。上世紀90年代，科學(xué)研究表明，如果化石燃料的使用繼續(xù)增加，全球氣候可能會發(fā)生變化，而人們對環(huán)境的重新關(guān)注正是對此的回應(yīng)。在中國的許多地區(qū)，風能為傳統(tǒng)發(fā)電廠提供了一種可行、經(jīng)濟的替代方案。風是一種清潔的燃料;風電場不會產(chǎn)生空氣或水污染，因為沒有燃料被燃燒。

　　風力機最嚴重的環(huán)境缺陷可能是其對野生鳥類種群的負面影響和對景觀的視覺影響。對一些人來說，地平線上閃閃發(fā)光的風車葉片令人眼花繚亂;對另一些人來說，它們是傳統(tǒng)發(fā)電廠的美麗替代品。