一个环保主义者的现实困境
别妄想泡我
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2020年07月30日 15:37
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作为一个富有的西方人，你明知给地球留下的将是更炎热和更不宜人的气候，如何从这种负罪感中解脱？一个英国人或者美国人在早餐和午餐之间的几个小时里制造的碳排放量，已超过了一个印度人一整天可能制造的排放量。欧洲各国政府希望，通过为旨在降低我们对化石燃料依赖度的措施提供巨额补贴，来减缓这种会造成极大破坏的影响。虽然已经花了数十亿，然而进展缓慢。
环保主义者的现实困境
For more than two decades I have been helping utility companies around the worldmake electricity generation cleaner. For most of that time, however, my personal environmental credentials have been a muddier shade of green. The guilt began at home (a draughty 19th-century house heated by oil, one of the dirtiest-burning fuels) and it followed me everywhere I went in my petrol-guzzling car. Heating homes and getting around accounts for more than half of the energy used in Britain. Spurred on by my wife, our family asked ourselves: how little could we use?
超过20年来，我一直帮助世界各地的公共事业公司推进清洁发电。然而，过去逾20年的大部分时间里，我个人在环境方面的表现就不那么绿色了。这种负罪感始于我的家中（一栋通风良好的19世纪房屋，靠燃油供暖，这是最肮脏的燃料之一），在我开着我那辆高油耗的汽车时如影随形地跟随着我。房屋供暖和交通出行占英国能源使用量的一半以上。在妻子的激励下，我们全家人都问自己：我们能尽量减少能耗吗？
Our first step was choosing a sustainable form of heating. My wife was keen on subsidised solar panels, but I could not in good conscience spend thousands of taxpayers’ pounds pointing photovoltaic cells at London’s gloomy skies. Instead we chose two air-source heat pumps to provide heat and hot water.
我们的第一步是选择一种使用可持续能源的供暖方式。我的妻子对有补贴的太阳能电池十分热衷，但我实在无法心安理得地在伦敦阴沉的天空下用着纳税人花了数千英镑补贴的光伏电池。于是我们选择了两台空气源热泵来供应暖气和热水。
At the time there were no subsidies for these gadgets, which work like air conditioners in reverse — heating the building and making outside air a bit colder. Worse, no local heating engineer had
even heard of them; we pitched in to send our tradesman on a training course organised by the Swedish manufacturer. One thing he learnt was that we would need a “three-phase” industrial-grade electricity supply — which doubled the system’s cost and wrecked the economics. But we were on a mission.
空气源热泵就像是起相反作用的空调——提高室内温度，同时让外部气温略微降低。当时政府对这些设备没有补贴，更糟糕的是，当地没有一个供暖工程师听说过这种设备；我们分担了一部分费用，把我们的工程师送去参加那家瑞典制造商组织的一个培训课程。他了解到的一件事是，我们需要“三相”工业级电源——这使整个系统的成本增加一倍，经济上极不划算。但我们义无反顾。
The system worked for a day; then it stopped. Daily calls to Sweden resulted in software updates, which in turn revealed further flaws. Then the manufacturer closed for Christmas, leaving us without heat during one of the coldest winters on record — a reminder of the difficulties that come with new technology. After six months, we had everything running smoothly, but now the numbers on our electricity meter were ticking up so fast that our supplier’s billing system declared that we had the decimal point in the wrong place.
这个系统只工作了一天就罢工了。我们每天打电话给瑞典的制造商，换来了软件升级，然而这个举动却引出了更多问题。然后圣诞节到了，设备制造商关门歇业，我们只得在没有供暖的情况下度过了有记录以来最冷的一个冬天——这提醒我们新技术往往伴随着怎样的困难。6个月后，一切都运行顺利了，但如今我们电表上的数字跳得飞快，以至于供电公司的计费系统称我们把小数点的位置搞错了。
Next we needed a more sustainable form of transport. With my 50th birthday looming, I test drove an electric car and fell in love with the acceleration that takes your breath away, and automation that nearly drives the car for you. The sticker price was a shock, even with a government rebate. But in the grip of obsession, I rationalised it as a green investment. Waiting for delivery gave us time to install the government-subsidised charging point. Unfortunately our home’s souped-up electricity could not deliver the needed 32 amps, so I had to pony up again for thicker wires.
下一步，我们需要一种使用可持续能源的出行方式。随着我五十岁生日临近，我试驾了一辆电动汽车，并爱上了那种让人屏息的推背感和几乎不用自己动手的自动驾驶功能。即使有政府退税，这辆车的标价依然高得让人咂舌。但我实在为之痴迷，因此我为自己找了个“绿色投资”的正当理由。等待车送来的时间里，我们安装了政府补贴的充电桩。遗憾的是，家中已经增强过的供电系统无法提供充电桩所
需的32安培电流，所以我不得不再次为更粗的电缆自掏腰包。
The new wheels arrived in time for my birthday, and my wife whisked me away for a surprise weekend getaway at a hotel chosen for the charging point on its front wall. Alas, it turned out to be a three-pin socket, no use to my car’s type 2 connector. The real surprise of that weekend turned out to be our tour of the car parks of Bracknell. We finally found a public charging point at a local supermarket, and had a coffee while the car picked up juice. By the time we returned to the hotel, we had exactly the same range as when we left two hours earlier.
新车在我生日之前如期而至，我的妻子还给了我一个惊喜——带我去一家酒店度周末，选择这家酒店的原因是它的院墙前有充电桩。唉，结果这个充电桩的插座是三孔的，和我的电动汽车的二型连接器不适配。结果发现，那个周末真正的“惊喜”，是我们开车到布拉克内尔(Bracknell)的汽车公园兜风的经历。我们最终在当地的一家超市找到了一个公共充电桩，并在汽车充电的时候喝了杯咖啡。当我们回到酒店的时候，车的电量和我们两小时前离开的时候完全一样。
Even an ardent enthusiast, one willing to invest time and money to live a greener life, will find it hard to make the technology work. Policy makers recommending energy efficient measures should walk a mile in my shoes — or at least drive around Bracknell’s car parks. They would see their own policies in a new light. We spend billions building offshore wind farms, which have to be shielded from the salty sea air and connected up with expensive subsea cables. But we overlook public infrastructure that would bring heat pumps within reach of every household, cutting energy use for heating by two-thirds. We subsidise electric cars, but forget the fast charging points that would make them more useful.
即使是一个热衷于环境保护、愿意投入时间和金钱让自己的生活方式更加环保的人，都会觉得很难让技术靠谱地工作。推荐节能措施的政策制定者应该先设身处地地想一想我的经历，或者至少开车在布拉克内尔的汽车公园转一圈。他们会用新的眼光来看待自己推出的政策。我们花了数十亿美元建造近海风电场，不仅要将电厂与带着咸味的海风隔开，还要将其和造价昂贵的海底电缆连接在一起。但我们却忽视了可以让空气源热泵走进千家万户的公共基础设施，这些热泵能将供暖能耗减少三分之二。我们为电动汽车提供补贴，却把能让这些汽车更有用处的快速充电桩忘到了脑后。
I do not know how far this green odyssey will take us, but that does not stop me dreaming. This year I have arranged a holiday in France, where I plan to tour the country’s charging points. If it works, then I will have driven all the way on clean electricity
. If it does not, I will be stranded by the roadside trying to work out the polarity of the charging station. As people who strive for a greener future know only too well, plenty of first-world problems remain.
我不知道我们能在这场“绿色冒险”之旅中走多远，但这并不能阻止我心怀梦想。今年我安排了去法国度假，计划利用沿途的充电点游览法国。如果这个计划成功了，那么我就将一路依靠清洁电能驾车出行。如果计划失败，我就会被撂在路边，试图确定充电站的正负电极。努力争取更绿色未来的人们知道得再清楚不过，现在仍然有很多“第一世界”的问题。
The writer, a director at Bain & Company, is head of the consultancy’s utility and alternative energy
本文作者是贝恩咨询公司(Bain & Co)的公共事业和替代性能源业务主管