Saul Griffith: High-altitude wind energy from kites!

翻译人员: Halei Liu 校对人员: Tony Yet

If you're at all like me,

如果你像我一样，

this is what you do with the sunny summer weekends in San Francisco:

那这就是你会在旧金山夏天的每个周末所干的事：

you build experimental kite-powered hydrofoils

你会建造实验性的风筝动力水翼船

capable of more than 30 knots.

时速在30海里以上。

And you realize that there is incredible power in the wind,

随后你就会认识到蕴藏在风里的不可思议的能量，

and it can do amazing things.

而且它可以用于很奇妙的事情上。

And one day, a vessel not unlike this

有一天，一艘和这个像似的船型

will probably break the world speed record.

将可能会打破世界速度记录。

But kites aren't just toys like this.

但是风筝并不仅仅是像这样的玩具。

Kites: I'm going to give you a brief history,

关于风筝，我会给你们一个简要的历史，

and tell you about the magnificent future

以及告诉你们神奇的未来

of every child's favorite plaything.

这都是小孩最喜欢的风筝的事情。

So, kites are more than a thousand years old,

那么，风筝已经有1000多年的历史，

and the Chinese used them for military applications,

中国用他们作为过军队装备，

and even for lifting men.

甚至是载人的。

So they knew at that stage they could carry large weights.

所以他们在那个时候就知道了风筝可以承载较大重量。

I'm not sure why there is a hole in this particular man.

我不确定为什么那个人身上有个洞。

(Laughter)

笑

In 1827, a fellow called George Pocock

在1827年，一个叫做乔治朴考克的家伙

actually pioneered the use of kites for towing buggies

实际上先锋般的用风筝来牵动车辆

in races against horse carriages across the English countryside.

这样来和马匹做横跨英国的比赛。

Then of course, at the dawn of aviation,

随后，理所当然的，在航空时代即将到来之际，

all of the great inventors of the time --

那个时代所有的伟大发明家们--

like Hargreaves, like Langley,

像哈格里夫斯，像兰利，

even Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, who was flying this kite --

甚至是亚历山大格雷厄姆贝尔，电话的发明着，都会像这样放风筝--

were doing so in the pursuit of aviation.

这样做是为了追求航空能力。

Then these two fellows came along,

然后这两个家伙出现了，

and they were flying kites to develop the control systems

他们在风筝上开发了制动系统

that would ultimately enable powered human flight.

那样会最终让人类的飞行梦想成真。

So this is of course Orville and Wilbur Wright,

这当然是恩奎斯特和莱特兄弟，

and the Wright Flyer.

以及莱特飞行器。

And their experiments with kites led to this

他们对风筝的实验引发了这个

momentous occasion, where we powered up and took off for the

重要时刻，那就是我们可以从起飞到降落

first-ever 12-second human flight.

第一个12秒的人类飞行。

And that was fantastic for the future of commercial aviation.

而且那是一个美妙的商业航空的未来。

But unfortunately, it relegated kites once again to be considered children's toys.

但是不幸的是，风筝再一次被低估为儿童的玩具。

That was until the 1970s, where we had the last energy crisis.

直到19世纪70年代，当我们上一次经济危机的时候。

And a fabulous man called Miles Loyd

一个叫做迈尔斯劳埃德的神话般的人

who lives on the outskirts of San Francisco,

他住在旧金山的郊区。

wrote this seminal paper that was completely ignored

写了这样一篇完全被遗忘的论文，

in the Journal of Energy

能量之旅，

about how to use basically an airplane on a piece of string

这是关于怎样用一根绳子去操控飞机

to generate enormous amounts of electricity.

来产生超乎强大的电力。

The real key observation he made is that

他做到的最关键的观察是

a free-flying wing can sweep through more sky and generate more power

一个自由飞行翼可以扫过更多的天空和创造更多的能量

in a unit of time than a fixed-wing turbine.

这是在一定的时间内和固定翼涡轮相比。

So turbines grew. And they can now span up to three hundred feet at the hub height,

所以涡轮那时在不断的被开发。现在他们可以跨越跨度长达三百英尺的枢纽高度，

but they can't really go a lot higher,

但是他们确实在也不能比那再高了，

and more height is where the more wind is, and more power --

不过更高的地方有更多的风，以及更多的能量 --

as much as twice as much.

两倍高的能量。

So cut to now. We still have an energy crisis,

所以直到现在，我们仍然还有能量危机，

and now we have a climate crisis as well. You know,

现在我们还同时有环境危机，你知道的。

so humans generate about 12 trillion watts,

所以人类生产了大概十二万亿瓦特，

or 12 terawatts, from fossil fuels.

或12兆瓦，从化石燃料中。

And Al Gore has spoken to why we need to hit one of these targets,

然后戈尔已经讲解了我们为什么要达到这些目标，

and in reality what that means is in the next 30 to 40 years,

以及在今后的30到40年里那到底意味着什么，

we have to make 10 trillion watts or more of new clean energy somehow.

我们必须制造10亿瓦特或者更多的干净能源，不管怎么样都要。

Wind is the second-largest renewable resource after solar:

风能是在太阳能之后的第二大可再生能源：

3600 terawatts, more than enough to supply humanity 200 times over.

3600兆瓦特，足以维持比现在多200倍的人。

The majority of it is in the higher altitudes, above 300 feet,

大多数风能是在高海拔，300英尺以上，

where we don't have a technology as yet to get there.

我们现有的科技还无法到达那个高度。

So this is the dawn of the new age of kites.

这样就到了风筝新舞台开始的时候。

This is our test site on Maui, flying across the sky.

这是我们在茂宜岛上的一个测试点，在空中翱翔着。

I'm now going to show you

我现在将要为你们展示

the first autonomous generation of power

第一自主发电机

by every child's favorite plaything.

由所有小孩最爱的玩具所提供。

As you can tell, you need to be a robot to fly this thing for thousands of hours.

你可以想象，你需要一个机器人来几千小时的放飞这个东西。

It makes you a little nauseous.

这可能让你有点眩晕。

And here we're actually generating about 10 kilowatts --

而且这样我们实际上可以生产大概10千瓦--

so, enough to power probably five United States households --

所以，足够维持5个美国家庭用电--

with a kite not much larger than this piano.

就用一个不大于钢琴大小的风筝。

And the real significant thing here

不过最有意义的事情是

is we're developing the control systems,

我们正在开发控制系统，

as did the Wright brothers, that would enable sustained, long-duration flight.

就像莱特兄弟那样，这样会提供可持续，长时间的飞行。

And it doesn't hurt to do it in a location like this either.

而也不会去破坏像这样的环境。

So this is the equivalent for a kite flier of peeing in the snow --

这样的话，这样放风筝就像在雪地里撒尿一样。

that's tracing your name in the sky.

这是在天空中画上你的名字。

And this is where we're actually going.

这也是我们将要做的事。

So we're beyond the 12-second steps.

我们将会翱翔在12秒之上。

And we're working towards megawatt-scale machines

我们正着手建造着兆瓦级机发电机

that fly at 2000 feet and generate tons of clean electricity.

这会在2000英尺的高度飞翔，以及产生大量的电力。

So you ask, how big are those machines?

那么你会问到，这些机器有多大呢？

Well, this paper plane would be maybe a -- oop!

好的，这个纸飞机大概会是，哟！

That would be enough to power your cell phone.

这个大概有足够的能量去提供你手机所需的动力。

Your Cessna would be 230 killowatts.

你们的塞斯纳就会是230千瓦。

If you'd loan me your Gulfstream, I'll rip its wings off and generate you a megawatt.

如果你能把湾流喷射机借我，我会把它的翅膀折掉，然后为你生产一千瓦特。

If you give me a 747, I'll make six megawatts,

如果你有一个747，我可以生产6万千瓦，

which is more than the largest wind turbines today.

这比今天最大的涡流翼所生产的还要多。

And the Spruce Goose would be a 15-megawatt wing.

史普鲁斯之鹅的翼大概是15万千瓦。

So that is audacious, you say. I agree.

所以这是十分大胆的构想，你会说道。我同意。

But audacious is what has happened many times before in history.

但是着这样的大胆构想在我们的历史上重复了无数次了。

This is a refrigerator factory,

这是一个电冰箱工厂，

churning out airplanes for World War II.

在二战时生产飞机。

Prior to World War II, they were making 1000 planes a year.

在二战之前，他们每年生产1000架飞机。

By 1945, they were making 100,000.

在1945年，他们生产100000架。

With this factory and 100,000 planes a year,

像这样年产100000架飞机的工厂，

we could make all of America's electricity in about 10 years.

我们可以生产维持美国10年的电力。

So really this is a story about the audacious plans of young people

所以，真的，这是一个关于年轻人的大胆计划

with these dreams. There are many of us.

有着这些梦想的。我们其中有很多。

I am lucky enough to work with 30 of them.

我很幸运的能和他们中的30个在一起工作。

And I think we need to support all of the dreams

我想我们必须支持所有的梦想

of the kids out there doing these crazy things.

孩子们的梦想，让他们去做一些疯狂的事情。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

掌声