被新的壹期The Economist的社論的標題吸引，遂翻了這篇文章，謹供參考，歡迎交流觀點，同時指正不足之處。
ALMOST 150 years after photovoltaic cells and wind turbines were invented, they still generate only 7% of the world’s electricity.
在太陽能光伏發電和風力渦輪發電技術問世將近150年後，它們依然只產生全球7%的電力。
Yet something remarkable is happening. From being peripheral to the energy system just over a decade ago, they are now growing faster than any other energy source and their falling costs are making them competitive with fossil fuels.
可有些令人矚目的事情卻在發生。十年前還是能源系統裏微不足道的壹部分，而現在它們比其他任何能源都發展的要快，不停降低的成本使得它們能夠同化石燃料旗鼓相當。
BP, an oil firm, expects renewables to account for half of the growth in global energy supply over the next 20 years. It is no longer far-fetched to think that the world is entering an era of clean, unlimited and cheap power. About time, too.
BP，壹家石油公司，作出預期認為可再生能源將在接下來的20年內占到全球供能數量增長的壹半。認為世界即將進入壹個幹凈，無限且廉價能源的時代不再是不著邊際的想法。同時，也該是時候了。
There is a $20trn hitch, though. To get from here to there requires huge amounts of investment over the next few decades, to replace old smog-belching power plants and to upgrade the pylons and wires that bring electricity to consumers.
然而，這還存在著壹道200億美刀的鴻溝。從現在的境地到理想的狀態需要接下來的幾十年中投入巨額的資金，來取代那些噴雲吐霧的發電廠，同時將給消費者輸送電力的電纜塔和電線進行更新換代。
Normally investors like putting their money into electricity because it offers reliable returns. Yet green energy has a dirty secret. The more it is deployed, the more it lowers the price of power from any source.
通常情況下投資者喜歡將他們的資金投入到電力產業中因為這會提供可靠的收益。 然而，綠色能源卻有壹個骯臟的秘密——它投入使用的越廣泛，來自其他資源產生的能源的價格就將降得越低。
That makes it hard to manage the transition to a carbon-free future, during which many generating technologies, clean and dirty, need to remain profitable if the lights are to stay on. Unless the market is fixed, subsidies to the industry will only grow.
這使得向沒有碳排放的未來的轉型變得困難了，因為在這個過程中，許多供能的廠家，無論清潔與否，都需要保持盈利，如果燈還需要亮著的話。除非市場的問題解決了，給能源產業的補貼將只會繼續增長。
Policymakers are already seeing this inconvenient truth as a reason to put the brakes on renewable energy. In parts of Europe and China, investment in renewables is slowing as subsidies are cut back. However, the solution is not less wind and solar. It is to rethink how the world prices clean energy in order to make better use of it.
政策的制定者已經看到了這個尷尬的事實，同樣也將其作為緣由放緩了可再生能源的進壹步投放。在歐洲和中國的部分地區，對可再生能源的投資正在放緩，而這正是因為補貼被降低了。然而，解決方法不是減少風或者太陽能，還是去重新思考世界應當如何去給清潔能源定價，進而更好的發揮它的作用。
At its heart, the problem is that government-supported renewable energy has been imposed on a market designed in a different era.
問題的中心在於政府所支持的可再生能源，被投放在了壹個與之時代上不相同步的市場裏。
For much of the 20th century, electricity was made and moved by vertically integrated, state-controlled monopolies.
20世紀的大多數時間，電力產業都被垂直壹體化的國有壟斷企業所生產，運輸。
From the 1980s onwards, many of these were broken up, privatised and liberalised, so that market forces could determine where best to invest.
從1980s開始，許多這些壟斷企業都被分解，私有化或解體了，進而市場力量可以決定哪兒是最好的投資方向。
Today only about 6% of electricity users get their power from monopolies. Yet everywhere the pressure to decarbonise power supply has brought the state creeping back into markets.
今天只有6%的用戶從壟斷企業獲取電力，然而無處不在的對無碳排放能源的需求使得國家不得不走回原先市場化的道路。
**This is disruptive for three reasons. **
而這件事情將是極具破壞性的，有三個原因。
The first is the subsidy system itself. The other two are inherent to the nature of wind and solar: their intermittency and their very low running costs.
首先是補貼體系自身，另外二者則關於風力和太陽能的本質：它們的間歇性以及極低的運作成本。
All three help explain why power prices are low and public subsidies are addictive.
如上三點解釋了為什麽能源價格非常低然而公眾補貼卻仍然是不可或缺的。
First, the splurge of public subsidy, of about $800bn since 2008, has distorted the market. It came about for noble reasons—to counter climate change and prime the pump for new, costly technologies, including wind turbines and solar panels.
第壹，公眾補貼的隨意揮霍，自08年起的約8億美刀，已經擾亂了市場。它投放時打著高尚的旗號——為了抵制氣候變化並且要采取措施促使新興且昂貴的科技，包括風力渦輪和太陽能光伏技術的發展。
But subsidies hit just as electricity consumption in the rich world was stagnating because of growing energy efficiency and the financial crisis. The result was a glut of power-generating capacity that has slashed the revenues utilities earn from wholesale power markets and hence deterred investment.
但是補貼入市的時機恰好是發達世界中電力消費因逐漸提高的能源效率以及經濟危機而遭遇滯漲的時刻。
Second, green power is intermittent. The vagaries of wind and sun—especially in countries without favourable weather—mean that turbines and solar panels generate electricity only part of the time. To keep power flowing, the system relies on conventional power plants, such as coal, gas or nuclear, to kick in when renewables falter. But because they are idle for long periods, they find it harder to attract private investors. So, to keep the lights on, they require public funds.
第二，綠色能源是間歇性的。風和太陽的不可預測性——尤其是在沒有有力天氣情況的國家——意味著渦輪和光伏電板僅僅只能部分時間產生電力。為了保證能源的供應，這個系統還需要依賴傳統的發電方式，比如煤，天然氣或者是核能，在可再生能源無法工作的時候接手。但是正因為可再生能源的長期擱置，它們很難能夠吸引到私人投資者。所以，為了能夠持續供電，它們需要公***的資金支持。
Everyone is affected by a third factor: renewable energy has negligible or zero marginal running costs—because the wind and the sun are free. In a market that prefers energy produced at the lowest short-term cost, wind and solar take business from providers that are more expensive to run, such as coal plants, depressing power prices, and hence revenues for all.
每個人都被第三個因素所影響：可再生能源有著微乎其微甚至可以不計的邊際運作成本——因為風能和太陽能是免費的。在壹個傾向於短期能源生產成本最低的市場中，風能和太陽能從供應商手中接手過來運營成本更高的供電方式比如火力發電廠，進而壓低供能價格，造福整個市場。
註釋：我個人對該段的理解是，從短期上來說，新能源收益是非常低的，進而沒有投資者願意投資建廠來提供新能源，這是供不足；而現在越來越多的人有保護環境的意識，進而有對綠色清潔能源的需求，導致需求大，供需之間有缺口，政府卻通過給傳統能源提供補助的方式來促使人們使用傳統能源而非清潔能源，進而有了“清潔能源從供應商手中接過運營成本更高。。。進而造福整個市場”（因為它間接性的拉低了其他能源的供應價格）
The higher the penetration of renewables, the worse these problems get—especially in saturated markets. In Europe, which was first to feel the effects, utilities have suffered a “lost decade” of falling returns, stranded assets and corporate disruption.
可再生能源滲透的越深，這些問題就會變得越嚴重——尤其是在飽和的市場中。歐洲已經首先感受到了這些影響，公用事業已經遭受了壹個“失落的十年”——收益下降，資產滯脹以及企業破產。
Last year, Germany’s two biggest electricity providers, E.ON and RWE, both split in two. In renewable-rich parts of America power providers struggle to find investors for new plants. Places with an abundance of wind, such as China, are curtailing wind farms to keep coal plants in business.
去年，德國兩家最大的電力公司，E.ON和RWE，都分裂成了兩家。在可再生能源盛行的地區，美國的能源供應商努力尋找投資商開設新的電廠。有充足風力的地區，比如中國，都已經雪藏了風力發電廠，以保持火力發電廠的運營。
The corollary is that the electricity system is being re-regulated as investment goes chiefly to areas that benefit from public support.
必然的結果就是電力系統正在被重新設立規則，伴隨著投資大部分流向能夠從公***補貼中收益的區域。
Paradoxically, that means the more states support renewables, the more they pay for conventional power plants, too, using “capacity payments” to alleviate intermittency. In effect, politicians rather than markets are once again deciding how to avoid blackouts.
矛盾的是，這也意味著支持可再生能源的國家越多，他們支付給傳統發電廠的也越多，因為他們用“支付能力”來緩解可再生能源的間歇性問題。實際上，是政客而非市場在又壹次在選擇如何規避停電的發生。
They often make mistakes: Germany’s support for cheap, dirty lignite caused emissions to rise, notwithstanding huge subsidies for renewables.
他們卻又總是犯錯誤：德國支持廉價的能源，引擎點火導致的汙染排放卻增加了，盡管為可再生能源發放了巨額的補貼。
Without a new approach the renewables revolution will stall.
The good news is that new technology can help fix the problem.
沒有新辦法的話，可再生能源的改革將要停滯了。而好消息是新的科技將幫助解決這個問題。
Digitalisation, smart meters and batteries are enabling companies and households to smooth out their demand—by doing some energy-intensive work at night, for example.
數字化，智能電表以及電池都在幫助企業和家庭緩和他們的需求——通過例如將能源密集型的工作放在夜晚。
This helps to cope with intermittent supply. Small, modular power plants, which are easy to flex up or down, are becoming more popular, as are high-voltage grids that can move excess power around the network more efficiently.
這有效解決了間歇性供應的問題。同時易於上下彎曲的小型模塊化發電廠正在變得十分流行，能夠使得更多額外能源更有效的在電路網絡中運行的高壓系統網絡亦然。
The bigger task is to redesign power markets to reflect the new need for flexible supply and demand. They should adjust prices more frequently, to reflect the fluctuations of the weather.
更大的任務是重新設計能源供給市場，以反應對靈活的供需關系的需要。他們應當更為頻繁的調整價格，以反應天氣的變化。
At times of extreme scarcity, a high fixed price could kick in to prevent blackouts. Markets should reward those willing to use less electricity to balance the grid, just as they reward those who generate more of it.
在極度稀缺的年代，壹個高昂的固定價格能夠很好的起到防止市場崩潰的作用。市場應當獎勵那些願意用更少的電的人，來調控市場，正如它們獎勵那些生產的更多的人。
Bills could be structured to be higher or lower depending how strongly a customer wanted guaranteed power all the time—a bit like an insurance policy. In short, policymakers should be clear they have a problem and that the cause is not renewable energy, but the out-of-date system of electricity pricing. Then they should fix it.
賬單價格的高低可以根據客戶有多想要無時無刻供應的穩定的能源來制定，有壹點像保險的售賣政策。總而言之，政策的制定者應當明確他們目前面臨著壹個問題並且這問題的原因不是可再生能源，而是早已過時的電力價格機制。他們應該修復這問題。
寫在文末的壹些感想：這篇文章提出的壹些問題確實值得我們思考，比如中國將風力發電棄之不用，目的是為了火力發電廠的持續運作。這的確是我們國家，甚至是全球都需要面對的問題，在轉型期間，原有的能源結構如何平穩的過渡，how to get to there from here，在考慮可持續發展的長遠目標的同時，又要如何控制住當下的成本，維持經濟發展，的確是很棘手的問題。我們不可能違背客觀規律，那麽可能正如文中所提出的，要麽從價格機制上予以調控，要麽，就寄希望於科技，改變我們的未來吧。