How much land does it take to power the world?

翻译人员: Gia Hwang 校对人员: Carol Wang

No matter how we make electricity, it takes up space.

无论我们如何发电，它都会占用空间。

Electricity from coal requires mines, and plants to burn it

煤炭发电需要矿山和燃煤工厂，

and convert the heat into electricity.

并将热量转化为电能；

Nuclear power takes uranium mines, facilities to refine the uranium,

核电需要铀矿、提炼铀的设施、

a reactor, and a place to store the spent fuel safely.

反应堆和安全储存乏核燃料的地方；

Renewable energy needs wind turbines or solar panels.

可再生能源需要风力涡轮机 或太阳能电池板；

How much space depends on the power source.

所需空间大小取决于能源。

Say you wanted to power a 10-watt light bulb with fossil fuels like coal.

假设你想用煤等化石燃料 为一个 10 瓦灯泡供电，

Fossil fuels can produce up to 2,000 watts per square meter,

化石燃料每平方米可产生 高达 2,000 瓦的电力，

so it would only take a credit card-sized chunk of land to power the light bulb.

所以，信用卡大小的土地 就可以为灯泡供电；

With nuclear power, you might only need an area

要是用核电的话，

可能只需手掌的大小区域即可。

about the size of the palms of your hands.

With solar power, you’d need at least 0.3 square meters of land—

若使用太阳能，则至少需要 0.3 平方米的土地——

twice the size of a cafeteria tray.

大小是自助餐厅托盘的两倍；

Wind power would take roughly 7 square meters—

风力发电大约需要 7 平方米才能为灯泡供电——

about half the size of a parking space— to power the bulb.

大约半个停车位的大小。

When you consider the space needed to power cities, countries,

当考虑为城市、国家 和全球供电所需空间时，

and the whole world, it adds up fast.

数量增加很快。

Today, the world uses 3 trillion watts of electricity.

当今世界使用的电力为 3 万亿瓦，

To power the entire world with only fossil fuels,

用化石燃料为全球供电的话，

you’d need at least about 1,200 square kilometers of space—

至少需要大约 1,200 平方公里的地方——

roughly the area of Grand Bahama island.

大约是大巴哈马岛的面积；

With nuclear energy, you’d need almost four times as much space at a minimum—

若用核能供电， 至少需要几乎四倍的空间——

roughly 4,000 square kilometers, a little less than the area of Delaware.

即大约 4,000 平方公里， 比特拉华州的面积略小；

With solar, you’d need at least 95,000 square kilometers,

使用太阳能，则至少 需要 95,000 平方公里，

approximately the area of South Korea.

大约与韩国面积相当；

With wind power, you’d need two million— about the area of Mexico.

风力发电则需两百万平方公里 ——大约是墨西哥的面积。

For each power source, there’s variability in how much power

针对不同的能源，

其每平方米产生的电力不同，

it can generate per square meter,

but these numbers give us a general sense of the space needed.

但这些数字让我们对所需空间 有一个大致的了解。

Of course, building energy infrastructure in a desert, a rainforest, a town,

当然，在沙漠、热带雨林、城镇、 甚至在海洋建设能源基础设施，

or even in the ocean are completely different prospects.

其前景也完全不同，

And energy sources monopolize the space they occupy to very different extents.

发电方式在不同程度上 决定了其占据空间的大小。

Take wind power.

以风力发电为例，

Wind turbines need to be spread out— sometimes half a kilometer apart—

风力涡轮机需要分散开 ——有时相距半公里——

so that the turbulence from one turbine

以免一台涡轮机的湍流

doesn’t reduce the efficiency of the others.

降低其它涡轮机的效率。

So, much of the land needed to generate wind power

这样风力发电 所需的大部分土地

is still available for other uses.

仍可用于其他用途。

But the baseline amount of space still matters,

但所需空间的基线量仍然很重要，

because cities and other densely populated areas have high electricity demands,

因为城市和其他人口 稠密地区电力需求很高，

and space near them is often limited.

而且其附近空间通常很有限。

Our current power infrastructure works best

在电力需求地按需发电，

when electricity is generated where and when it’s needed,

而非长距离存储或发送时，

rather than being stored or sent across long distances.

目前的电力基础设施效果最好。

Still, space demands are only part of the equation.

尽管如此，空间需求 只是等式的一部分。

As of 2020, 2/3 of our electricity comes from fossil fuels.

截至 2020 年，我们 2/3 的电力来自化石燃料，

Every year, electricity generation is responsible for about 27%

每年，我们向大气排放 500 多亿吨温室气体，

of the more than 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases

其中约 27%

we add to the atmosphere,

是发电产生的，

accelerating climate change and all its harms.

加剧了气候变化及其危害。

So although fossil fuels require the least space of our existing technologies,

因此，尽管化石燃料 对现有技术的需求最小，

we can’t continue to rely on them.

但我们不能继续依赖它们。

Cost is another consideration.

成本是另一个考虑因素。

Nuclear plants don’t emit greenhouse gases and don’t require much space,

核电站不排放温室气体， 也不需要太多空间，

but they’re way more expensive to build than solar panels or wind turbines,

但其建造成本远高于 太阳能电池板或风力涡轮机，

and have waste to deal with.

并且还要处理核废料。

Renewables have almost no marginal costs—

可再生能源几乎没有边际成本——

unlike with plants powered by fossil fuels,

和化石燃料发电厂不同，

you don’t need to keep purchasing fuel to generate electricity.

无需持续购买燃料来发电，

But you do need lots of wind and sunlight,

但确实需要大量的风和阳光，

which are more available in some places than others.

某些地方比其他地方 更易获得这些资源。

No single approach will be the best option to power the entire world

在消除有害温室气体排放的同时，

while eliminating harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

没有哪个单一发电方式 是为全球提供能源的最佳选择。

For some places, nuclear power might be the best option

在某些地方，

核电可能是替代 化石燃料的最佳选择；

for replacing fossil fuels.

Others, like the U.S., have the natural resources

其他国家，如美国，

拥有从可再生能源中获取大部分 或全部电力的自然资源。

to get most or all of their electricity from renewables.

And across the board, we should be working to make our power sources better:

全面而言，我们应该努力 使我们的能源更好：

safer in the case of nuclear,

让核电更安全、

and easier to store and transport in the case of renewables.

让可再生能源更容易储存和运输。