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如何用太阳能拯救未来?(上)

来源:可可英语 编辑:Daisy   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet

This might look like a death ray, but it's not.

这可能看起来像死亡射线,但其实不是。

It's actually One enormous, very accurate magnifying glass.

它实际上是一个巨大的、非常精确的放大镜。

This magnifying glass has a technical name, a sunlight refinery.

这种放大镜的技术名称,叫阳光提炼器(sunlight refinery)。

To use it, find somewhere really sunny, plop down a bunch of mirrors, bounce the sunlight into a single spot and you can melt just about anything. Okay, so it is kind of death ray-ish.

要使用它,你得找到一个真正有阳光的地方,放下一堆镜子,把阳光反弹到一个地方,你就可以融化几乎所有的东西,所以它有点像死亡射线。

Why do this? Because manufacturing steel or cement requires a lot of heat and making something super hot has historically meant burning dinosaurs.

为什么要这样做?因为制造钢铁或水泥需要大量的热量,而制造超高温的东西在历史上意味着能燃烧恐龙的温度。

You look at the massive carbon footprint that is associated with these industrial applications and it can't be ignored.

看一下与这些工业应用相关的大量碳足迹,我们不能忽视它。

Twenty percent of global carbon emissions to be precise.

准确地说,它占了全球碳排放的20%。

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And because this technology is so good, it might just change the entire energy industry.

由于这项技术如此好,它可能会改变整个能源行业。

And prevent World War III in the process.

并在此过程中防止第三次世界大战。

This is "Hard Reset," a series about rebuilding our world from scratch.

这就是 “硬重置”,它可以从头开始重建我们的世界。

Just east of Six Flags and north of LA is a place called Lancaster, which is very flat, very hot and a perfect place to test a takeover of the world's energy supply.

在六旗的东部和洛杉矶的北部有一个叫兰开斯特的地方,那里地形非常平坦,但天气非常炎热,是测试世界能源供应的最佳地点。

Yeah, that sounded more Bond villain-y than I thought it would.

这听起来比我想象的要更像邦德反派。

Anyway, these are called heliostats and the reason this solar refinery works so well is that under these mirrors and shot glasses are pretty simple motors that they can control remotely.

总之,这些被称为定日镜,这个太阳能炼油厂之所以工作得这么好,是因为在这些镜子和玻璃杯下面有非常简单的马达,他们可以被远程控制。

And this allows the mirrors to change angles throughout the day, depending on where the sun is.

这使得镜子可以在一天中根据太阳的位置改变角度。

How do they know where the sun is? Interns.

他们怎么知道太阳在哪里?靠人力。

No, AI, of course.

不对,当然是靠人工智能。

You need to take each of thousands of mirrors and point them very, very precisely, accurate to about 1/10 or 1/20 of a degree.

你需要把数以千计的镜子中的每一个,非常、非常精确地指向大约1/10或1/20度的程度。

That's Bill Gross, genius visionary and founder of over 150 companies.

这就是比尔-格罗斯,天才的远见卓识,他是150多家公司的创始人。

Also super nice guy.

人也超级好。

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

谢谢你的夸赞。

At the top of the tower, high-resolution cameras monitor the position of the mirrors below.

在塔顶,高分辨率的摄像机监控着下面镜子的位置。

You can actually see the two at the top are the easiest to pick out 'cause they're on booms above the receiver.

实际上,你可以看到顶部的两个是最容易被发现的,因为它们在接收器上方的吊杆上。

So Heliogen gets all those mirrors to reflect sunlight into that big target at the top.

所以Heliogen公司让所有镜子把阳光反射到顶部的大目标上。

So what we've got just above us is the solar receiver. So you can see that's what we saw from ground level.

我们上面的是太阳能接收器。可以看到这就是我们在地面上看到的。

That's where that concentrated sunlight is focused when the field is operating.

运作过程中,阳光就集中在这里。

The cameras know if the mirrors are bouncing into the sun because those cameras are assessing the quality of the sky's blue.

摄像机知道镜子是否反弹到太阳,因为这些摄像机正在评估天空的蓝色质量。

Let's break that down with Steve, who has cool tattoos.

我们来和史蒂夫一起分析一下,史蒂夫是有很酷的纹身的那位。

This is my robot battle armor and what I have here is a jungle on an alien planet with robots tending the garden.

这是我的机器人战斗盔甲,我这里有一个外星球上的丛林,有机器人在打理花园。

And is in charge of the technology stuff here.

并负责这里技术上东西。

What these cameras see is the reflection of the sky close to the sun.

这些摄像机所看到的是靠近太阳的天空的反射。

Close to the sun, the sky appears very bright from the scattered sunlight coming through it and the further away from the sun you look, the darker or less bright that patch of sky appears to be.

在靠近太阳的地方,天空因散射的阳光而显得非常明亮,而离太阳越远,那片天空就显得越暗或越不明亮。

So the cameras look at the color blue and the AI uses that information to assess the distance from the sun, deduce the orientation of the mirror and therefore, where the beam is going.

因此,摄像机看到的是蓝色,人工智能利用这一信息来评估与太阳的距离,推断出镜子的方向,从而推断出光束的走向。

So every few seconds, we get a measurement of where that beam is going and we can command the heliostat to make small corrections to optimize its tracking.

因此,每隔几秒钟,我们就会得到一个关于光束走向的测量,我们可以命令定日镜进行小的修正,以优化其跟踪。

In this industry, that is a complete game changer 'cause now we don't rely on the hardware to be so precise, we have software to make it precise.

在这个行业,这完全改变了游戏规则,因为现在我们不依赖于硬件的精确性,我们有软件来控制它的精确性。

So it really changes everything about how that plant operates and allows us to reach higher performance levels at a much lower cost.

因此,它真的改变了工厂运作的一切,使我们能够以更低的成本达到更高的性能水平。

So software that controls accuracy, not hardware.

所以控制精度的是软件,而不是硬件。

And the more accurate those mirrors can be throughout the day, the fewer of them they actually need.

而这些镜子在一天中越精确,他们实际需要的镜子就越少。

More importantly, it allows Heliogen to do something that no other concentrated solar refinery has been able to do.

更重要的是,它使Heliogen能够做到其他聚光太阳能精炼无法做到的事情。

Generate temperatures north of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

那就是产生1000摄氏度以上的温度。

People have done mirror concentration before but they've achieved 400 degrees, 500 degrees. We've achieved 1,500 degrees.

人们以前也做过镜像浓缩,但他们达到了400度,500度。而我们已经达到了1500度。

That heat is important because solar energy needs to be used immediately or stored somehow.

这种热量很重要,因为太阳能需要立即使用或以某种方式储存。

Batteries are expensive and problematic but you know what's cheap and safe?

电池很贵而且容易出问题,但你知道什么又便宜又安全吗?

Just normal rocks.

就是普通的石头。

You have a rock collection?

你有收藏岩石?

It's a mineral collection.

那是一个矿物收藏。

And we take that high temperature and we bring it down into a rock bed.

我们把这种高温带入岩床中。

We literally heat rocks to 1,000 degrees Centigrade.

我们把岩石加热到1000摄氏度。

The temperatures are so high, the metal actually can't take it.

温度是如此高,金属实际上无法承受这个温度。

So we put the insulation on the inside to protect the steel from those high temperatures.

因此,我们把保温层放在里面,以保护钢铁免受这些高温的影响。

If you heat rocks to 1,000 degrees Centigrade with the photons, they now stay hot even after the sun goes down.

如果你用光子将岩石加热到1000摄氏度,那么它们现在即使在太阳下山后也会保持高温。

Those rocks are in an insulated tank, like a thermos. And they'll stay hot for a week.

这些石头被放在一个绝缘的罐子里,就像一个保温瓶。而且它们的热度会保留一个星期。

Those rocks act as batteries, storing energy that can be used to generate power 24 hours a day.

这些石头就像电池一样,储存能量,可用于一天24小时的发电。

It allows us to power things that need to run around the clock.

有了它们,我们就可以为需要昼夜运行的设备提供动力。

And civilization does run around the clock.

文明确实是昼夜不停地演变。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
visionary ['viʒənəri]

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adj. 幻影的,幻想的,有远见卓识的 n. 空想家,梦

联想记忆
generate ['dʒenə.reit]

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vt. 产生,发生,引起

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melt [melt]

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vi. 融化,熔化,消散
vt. 使融化,使熔

 
enormous [i'nɔ:məs]

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adj. 巨大的,庞大的

联想记忆
control [kən'trəul]

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n. 克制,控制,管制,操作装置
vt. 控制

 
prevent [pri'vent]

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v. 预防,防止

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mineral ['minərəl]

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adj. 矿物的
n. 矿物,矿石

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cement [si'ment]

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n. 水泥,纽带,接合剂,牙骨质,补牙物,基石

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protect [prə'tekt]

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vt. 保护,投保

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concentrated ['kɔnsentreitid]

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adj. 全神贯注的,浓缩的 动词concentrate

 

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