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The Next Wave of Solar Gear 太阳能风潮席卷全球

详细资料: 创建于 2010年4月21日; 最后更新于 2024年5月25日; 发布于 2012年4月03日; 作者：Mike Lee; 点击数：337

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After decades of design neglect, solar-powered gadgets finally get a blast of style 数十年来，（太阳能产品）设计一直备受忽视，但如今太阳能器材终于欢庆美形变身

Solar energy got hot in the 1980s. Innovation Nation put on its thinking cap and began harvesting the resources that were literally falling from the sky: the 1,366 watts of solar energy that constantly rain down on every sunny square meter of earth. Smelling opportunity in those free-flowing photons, huge companies jumped into the sun business. In 1984, the energy giant ARCO teamed up with Fluor, the engineering conglomerate, to erect what was the largest solar farm in the world, a mammoth photovoltaic (PV) cluster in the California desert called Carrizo Plains. It was 120 acres of blue-gray panels, bolted to concrete posts. And if its rumored $65 million cost was accurate, then each watt cost about $10, only to be sold to the local utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, for pennies.

太阳能在一九八０年代开始窜红，创新国家动了动脑筋，开始丰收确确实实可说是从天上掉下来的礼物：那就是源源不断地洒落在地球每平方公尺有阳光的面积上的一千三百六十六瓦特的太阳能。大型企业也嗅出了这些自由洒落的光子的商机，而纷纷投入了太阳能产业。在一九八四年，能源巨子亚科和福洛尔工程企业集团携手合作，在加州沙漠地带的加利沙平原建立了全世界最大的太阳能场的庞大光电丛组，包括了占地一百二十英亩、固定在水泥柱上的蓝灰色（太阳能）板。如果传言六千五百万美元的造价属实的话，那么发电每瓦特的成本约是十美元，可是却只能以几美分的价格出售给当地电厂太平洋瓦斯和电力公司。

A rough start 艰难的起步

Thus was born solar’s reputation: hopeful, expensive and ugly. Americans who wanted to participate in this new energy-independence movement had to be millionaires with a south-facing roof or hold a PhD in mechanical engineering. They certainly couldn’t care about how their hardware looked.

于是太阳能的名气就诞生了：那就是充满了希望，但却昂贵又丑陋。想加入这场新能源独立运动的美国人，必须是百万富翁而且家里屋顶还必须朝南才行（译注：这是为了吸收阳光的最大效益，北半球应朝南，但南半球则须朝北），要不然就是必须拥有机械工程博士学位。他们当然不在乎太阳能硬件设施的外观好不好看。

Solar has since trickled down to the consumer-products market – calculators, alarm clocks, air purifiers – but even there, things haven’t looked much better. “When we took an audit of solar products at the point of use,” says Robert Regen, “we realized that most of them look like bad science experiments. …. There are very few objects I coveted or wanted to use.”

此后太阳能继续往下延伸运用到（译注：原指涓滴，引申为由上往下地逐步扩散到消费者产品等领域）消费者产品市场──包括计算器、闹钟、空气清净机等都有──但即使是这类产品，外观也好不到哪去。「当我们审查了客户端的太阳能产品之后，」旧金山里根公司共同创办人罗伯．布鲁纳表示，「我们发现，其中大多数看起来都像是糟糕的科学实验作品…只有极少数产品会令我渴望到手或想使用。」

Makeover time! 整容时间！

So Brunner’s design firm, Ammunition Group, teamed with a New Mexican clean-tech venture accelerator called Noribachi to create patented solar-hybrid devices that also happen to be beautiful. Regen’s goal is twofold: Bring charm to a sector that has been devoid of it and satisfy a huge new appetite – customers with an urge to do good.

因此，布鲁纳的设计公司弹药团体就和一家名为诺利巴奇的新墨西哥州洁净科技加速型育成公司合作，设计出外型也很美观的专利太阳能混合装置。里根的目标有两层：一是把魅力注入这个欠缺吸引力的业界，其二就是满足那些想要善待地球（译注：原意为做好事，因太阳能属于绿色环保能源）的顾客，而他们的新胃口可不小。

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neglect [nɪgˋlɛkt] n. 忽略；疏忽

blast [blæst] n. 阵, 一阵

rain down 大量降下 fall from clouds; fall

photon [ˋfotɑn] n.【物】光子

conglomerate [kənˋglɑmərɪt] n. 企业集团 a company that owns several smaller businesses whose products or services are usually very different

erect [ɪˋrɛkt] v. 建造; 竖立; 搭建

mammoth [ˋmæməθ] adj. 巨大的，庞大的

photovoltaic [fotovɑlˋteɪk] adj. 光电伏的 referring to a type of photocell that changes light from the sun into electricity, used in solar panels, pocket calculators, etc.

cluster [ˋklʌstɚ] n.（人，动物等的）群，组

bolt [bolt] v. 闩上，插上

post [post] n. 柱；桩；杆

utility [juˋtɪlətɪ] n. 公用事业；公用事业公司

audit [ˋɔdɪt] n. 审查 a methodical examination or review of a condition or situation

covet [ˋkʌvɪt] v. 垂涎；贪图；渴望

ammunition [͵æmjəˋnɪʃən] n. 弹药，军火

venture [ˋvɛntʃɚ] n. 冒险；冒险事业，投机活动

accelerator [ækˋsɛlə͵retɚ] n. 加速装置; 【化】催化剂；促进剂

sector [ˋsɛktɚ] n. 行业; 部分

devoid [dɪˋvɔɪd] adj. 缺乏的；没有的[F][（+of）]

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Combing technology and beauty 结合科技与美学

Regen is not alone in its desire to make solar shine, however. Here are examples of great designs that finally see the light of day.

不过，里根并不是唯一想让太阳发光的公司，以下是其他终于拨云见日的优异设计例子（译注：make solar shine或see the light of day都是隐喻性的用法，用来和太阳能做文字游戏）。

Regen ReVu 里根ReVu

“The ReVe is a perfect example of serendipitous beauty,” says Regen’s cofounder Robert Brunner, of the lamp that uses only 4 watts per hour to generate the light thrown off by a 75-watt bulb, Regen needed enough surface area to collect enough solar power to drive five Cree high-performance LEDs. “By chance, it turned out to be plantlike,” Brunner says.

「ReVu就是很典型的机缘巧合之下所创造出的美形产品完美典范，」里根的共同创办人罗伯．布鲁纳如此描述这款灯，它每小时只消耗四瓦特的电力，就能使七十五瓦特的灯泡发光。里根需要让灯拥有足够的表面面积，才能搜集足够的太阳能来点亮五颗克利高效能发光二极管灯泡。「很巧地，结果这盏灯就有了植物般的外型，」布鲁纳指出。

Regen ReVerb 里根ReVerb

Regen has filed a patent for what it calls a “conformal solar surface” – as an array of small photovoltaic panels that allow a curved surface to generate electric current. It may be the most beautiful and miserly iPhone/iPod dock ever made, drawing only 6 watts but putting out the equivalent of 60 watts.

里根也为其称之为「可弯曲的太阳能表面」申请专利──也就是一系列小型的光电板，可以让弯曲的表面也能发出电流。这也许是有史以来最美丽也最小iPhone/iPod底座，只消耗六瓦特的电力，却能产生相当于六十瓦的能源。

Schott ASI Glass 施特ASI玻璃

Schott N.A., part of the $3.1 billion German glass giant Schott AG, created integrated PV panels that strike a once-impossible technical balance shade (or complete opacity), natural light, brilliant color, and electricity generation, all in one window. The result is visible at Coney Island’s Stillwell Avenue Terminal in New York, among other places.

隶属于德国玻璃龙头企业施特A.G.的施特N.A.所制造出的整合型太阳能光电板，在技术上取得了过去无法达到的平衡：在一块窗板上结合了阴影（或完全不透明）、自然光、绚丽的色彩和发电等所有元素，其成果可以在纽约市科尼岛的史提威街地铁站和其他地方看到。

Brunton SolarPort 4.4 布鲁顿太阳埠4.4

Bruton, a high-end camping-gear maker, has been building portable solar arrays for years. The SolarPort 4.4 has a USB power output to charge your GPS on the trail. And the foldable SolarPort even doubles as a charger for double- and triple-A batteries.

高档露营器材制造厂商布鲁顿多年来一直致力于打造可携带的太阳能系列产品，而太阳埠4.4拥有USB电力输出，可以一边上路一边为全球定位系统充电。此外，可折迭的太阳埠甚至还另有充电器的双重功能，可为AA或AAA电池充电。

Samsung Blue Earth 三星蓝地球

The solar-enabled Blue Earth phone has a PV panel on the back to extend the duration of a wall charge and boasts a charger that uses less than 0.03 watts per hour in standby mode. An “Eco mode” lowers screen brightness (and battery draw) and improves Bluetooth efficiency; the “Eco walk” built-in pedometer calculates your CO₂emission reduction when you take a stroll instead of drive.

使用太阳能的蓝地球手机在背部拥有光电板，可以延长墙上充电的续航力，充电器在待命模式中，每小时只消耗不到0.03瓦特的电力。「环保模式」则会把屏幕亮度（和电池耗电量）调低，并增进蓝芽的效能，而「环保步行」这种内置式计步器则会在你漫步时，计算这样会比开车减少了多少二氧化碳排放量。

−by Paul Hochman

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