什麼是文學

什麼是文學

文學是真實的貼近自己的生命
並且把它寫出來

有關太陽能的好文--讓太陽能重見天日

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D

They've lost it, lost it,
and their children
will never ever wish for it -
and I am afraid ..
because the sun keeps rising
and these daysnobody sings.
-- Aaron Kramer

Is it really a lack of the right technology that is keeping solar power off the mass market? Or is the light from our nearest star, the Sun, being held hostage by an economy that is devoted to using up the Earth's last drops of fossil fuel at all cost?

Using the light from the Sun, our ultimate energy source, is not a new technology at all, but has been around for thousands of years. Passive solar heating, orienting a dwelling to take advantage of the sun, has influenced the design of communities from the times of ancient Greece. Fuel wood supplies quickly dwindled as cities grew and an energy crisis was soon at hand. In the 4th century B.C., merchants rose to power by controlling wood supplies and cornering export and import markets. Greed is not a modern invention.

Modern solar power array in Italy (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

Evidence of the use of solar architecture, the design of buildings to make best use of the Sun, has been found in many excavations. A solar oriented home conserved the use of wood and coal and saved money.

In the 4th century A.D., all of the 4,000 residents of the city of Priene in Asia Minor relocated their homes to nearby Mount Mycale to escape frequent floods. An entirely new city was designed and oriented so that they could enjoy the warmth of the Sun in winter and be spared its heat in summer.

The use of glass in the 17th and 18th centuries was a way to capture the heat of the Sun efficiently. Soon, solar engines and machines were devised, including a solar powered steam engine, and a solar boiler. A massive solar power plant was built in Egypt in 1912. This plant could pump 6,000 gallons of water per minute and generate 55 horsepower. Plans were underway to replace dirty coal with this new, cheaper form of energy.

The onset of World War I in 1914 ended that wave of solar development projects around the world, as engineers and workers left their jobs in sunny climates to do war related work in their homelands.

At this point, huge oil and natural gas fields were discovered, eliminating the to continue solar power development. Oil and gas were selling at giveaway prices, and the world's governments and business people became complacent over the availability of energy. Many of the land barons who became the oilmen of the early 20th century formed the huge energy companies we have today.

Also around this time, solar powered water heaters were really catching on. More than half the population of Miami, Florida had them by 1941, including 80 percent of the new homes built. But World War II and the prohibition on non-military uses of copper nearly ended the industry in favor of new, cheap electricity.

In the 1950s and 1960s, U.S. gas and electric utilities promoted heavy consumption in their advertising campaigns. Lower prices were given to those who used more energy! The campaigns worked, and natural gas and other fuel production doubled between 1950 and 1965. With prices at two cents per kilowatt-hour, there was absolutely no incentive to create energy efficient appliances.

The energy ethic that exists today had taken hold. The goal had become to sell the cheapest forms of energy possible to make the most profit for utility owners. Alternative forms of energy that use free sources such as sunlight, wind, and the heat of the Earth do not fit into this model of production.

Even though crude oil shortages were beginning to appear in the mid-1960s, the U.S. government never embraced the new technology for solar cells. Authors Ken Butti and John Perlin in their book "Golden Thread, 25,000 years of Solar Architecture and Technology," said that "Washington's attitude mirrored that of a nation hypnotized by seemingly limitless supplies of cheap fossil fuel, and by the almost magic aura surrounding nuclear energy."

This home in Hopewell, New Jersey is not connected to the utility grid. It utilizes passive solar design, solar photovoltaic power, and solar heated water. (Photo courtesy Lyle Rawlings, First, Inc.)

Butti and Perlin remind us that there was no powerful solar lobby like the ones for the huge business interests behind coal, oil, gas, and nuclear power.

Recently, some cities have offered subsidies for property owners who choose to install solar cells to generate power. But nearly all those programs demand that the homes continue to be hooked up to the energy grid, selling back their surplus power to the electric utility. This has severely limited the ability of people to be able to afford to leave the power grid completely to supply their own energy needs.

The utility companies, of course, do not want you to leave the grid, since such an approach would infringe on profits. So anti-solar propaganda is spread liberally around the world. In an article in the "Washington Post" on June 8 that was carried as a full page special feature in the "Seattle Times," readers were told that even with batteries attached to solar systems, "homeowners probably could not run washers and air conditioners at the same time."

But do we really need to run them at the same time? The same postwar energy consumption mindset is still firmly in place.

That same article quotes a solar expert from the Electric Power Research Institute who continues to dampen our enthusiasm for solar power today by predicting that in "100 years from now, solar energy will provide a substantial percentage of the world's energy needs." He tells us that solar power is still a "luxury item, like buying a swimming pool." Sadly, it is true.

But while the U.S. government has been uninterested in developing solar power commercially, many inventors around the world have continued solar development and many other nations are aggressively pursuing solar power. The Sanyo Company plans to build the world's largest solar power generation system, with a 3.4 megawatt output, in Toyko by 2004. One megawatt is enough electricity to light 1,000 typical American homes.

Sim Van der Ryn, an architect who directed California's now defunct Office of Appropriate Technology under Governor Jerry Brown, told the "Benicia News," a California newspaper, "If the government had been a major purchaser of [solar] photovoltaics, it would have stimulated that industry."

Van der Ryn asserts, "You could supply the entire electricity demand of the U.S. with one giant solar farm in Nevada."
The gold of the solar arrays on the Hubble Space Telescope, illuminated from behind by the sunrise (Photo courtesy NASA )

As a 20 year veteran of our nation's space exploration program, I have seen the advances made in creating solar power systems for spacecraft. The capability of creating super efficient machines exists as well.

While working on the Voyager, Galileo, and Space Station missions for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Jet Laboratory, I worked designing missions for instruments that were the most advanced, yet most energy efficient, on Earth. A high resolution TV camera used five to 10 watts of power. Its counterpart in a TV station on Earth uses tens of thousands of watts.

When fully deployed in space at the International Space Station, the eight solar panel wings, each 107 by 38 feet, will encompass an area of 32,528 square feet, and will provide power to the station for 15 years. Those panels provide enough energy to power about 10 average American homes.

The solar technology is there, but the heart and motivation are not. It is time to throw open the doors to solar power technology and release the stranglehold that fossil fuel energy companies have on our lives.

RESOURCES

1. Visit Real Goods for a primer on solar power at: http://www.solareco.com/articles/articles.
cfm?ct=1000. While you are there, you can outfit your home with the necessary equipment to get off the grid.

2. Visit the Institute for Solar Living at: http://www.solarliving.org/
index.cfm for info about a sustainable future

3. Get into solar cooking at: http://solarcooking.org/

4. Learn about the human impact on our world from the Worldwatch Institute at: http://www.worldwatch.org/

5. See a Greenpeace report about why we don't have more solar power by clicking here.

6. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/
juan/congress/ziptoit.html

7. Contact President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov. Tell him it is time to let the Sun shine in and to stop resisting solar power.

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found marveling at all the energy from the Sun that bathes our Earth every day. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at: http://www.healingourworld.com}

http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-15g.html

作者 傑奇‧艾倫‧朱利安諾 博士

他們已經失去了
而他們的孩子也不再期待
這一切讓人害怕
因為這些日子以來
太陽依舊升起
但沒有人再為此歌唱
-- 阿倫‧克萊曼

　　真的是因為缺乏良好技術，才使得太陽能無法進入主流市場？還是因為我們的經濟體系，寧可耗盡地球上最後一點化石燃料，也不願使用太陽這顆離我們最近恆星所散發的光亮？

　　陽光，我們最基本的能源，它的利用其實已經行之千年，並不是什麼新穎的科技。早自古希臘以來，住屋向陽吸熱的觀念，一直影響著社區的設計。隨著城市興起，木質燃料的供給迅速減少，能源危機一觸即發，西元前四世紀的商人，便靠著控制木材與相關進出口的市場而得勢，貪婪可不是現代社會才有的產物。

　　義大利的現代太陽能板陣列。（照片提供　綠色和平組織）

　　在許多考古遺址中，發現了使用太陽能的證據，那些建築物設計便是以善用太陽為考量。向陽的房子可以節約木材與煤炭的使用，也可省下不少錢。

　　西元四世紀時，小亞細亞的普里內城，四千位居民為了避開頻仍的洪水，遷居至山邊，而整個新城市的設計與排列就兼顧到太陽的走向，使得當地居民住起來能夠冬暖夏涼。

　　到了十七、八世紀，玻璃使得太陽熱力的利用變得更有效率，太陽能的引擎和機器，也都應運而生，其中還包括太陽能蒸汽引擎以及太陽能煮沸器。西元1912 年時，埃及出現了一座大型太陽能發電廠，每分鐘能夠抽六千加侖的水，產生55馬力。這種新穎且成本低廉的發電方式，取代了原本骯髒的燃煤發電。

　　1914年第一次世界大戰爆發，工程師與工人紛紛抽身離開太陽能工作，回到自己的國家準備戰事，因而終止了全球太陽能發展計畫的風潮。

　　這時期發現的巨量油田與天然氣，再度降低發展太陽能計畫的可能性。石油與天然氣的售價低廉，各國政府與商人對能源的取得都感到滿意，今日許多的大型石油公司，便是由20世紀初成為油商的地主組成的。

　　在此同時，太陽能熱水器也趕上了時代潮流，1941年時，大半的邁阿密與佛羅里達居民家中都設有此裝置，其中包含80％的新房子。但是二次大戰的爆發以及在非軍事設施對銅的禁用，則幾乎斷絕了這項新穎電價低的工業。

　　在1950和1960年代，美國的天然氣與電力公司，以「用越多省越多」的促銷手法，鼓勵大眾盡量使用能源，這樣的策略果然奏效，天然氣與其它燃料在 1950到1965年間的產量加倍。而在一度（每千瓦小時）兩分錢的收費標準下，根本不會有任何誘因去發展更省電的家電用品。

目前對能源的觀點由來已久，其目標變成是使擁有能源的人以最大獲利方式販售任何種類的低成本能源，至於那些免費的能源來源，諸如陽光、風與地熱根本不適合這套生產模式。

　　即使在1960年代中期發生原油短缺的問題，美國政府仍不願發展太陽能電池的新技術。「金色陽光：太陽能建築與技術兩萬五千年」的作者肯‧布弟與約翰‧柏林在書中提到：「華盛頓方面的態度，反映著一個受到便宜化石燃料無限制供給，以及核能發電萬無一失所催眠的國家。」

　　這間在紐澤西、候普威爾的房子，並沒有與商用電力系統連接，他們使用被動式太陽能發電與太陽能熱水器的設計。（照片提供　萊爾洛林斯公司）

　　布弟與柏林點醒了我們，太陽能與煤炭、石油、天然氣或是核能的情況不同，在它的背後並沒有龐大的商業利益存在，自然也就不會出現有力的遊說團體。

　　近來，一些城市對於選擇使用太陽能電池發電的居民給予補助，但幾乎所有的計畫依舊要求用戶繼續維持在整個能源供應系統中，並將他們多餘的能源賣回給電力公司，這規定嚴重地限制人們完全脫離電力系統而達到自給自足的能力。

　　為避免影響收益，電力公司當然不會希望用戶脫離電力網路，這種反太陽能的作為在全世界都上演著。在六月八號的華盛頓郵報上有一篇文章討論西雅圖時報上有一整版的篇幅告知讀者，在家裡「即使將電池接上太陽能系統，可能也無法同時使用洗衣機與空調。」

　　但問題是我們真的一定要同時使用它們嗎？戰後人們對於能源的消耗，依舊維持著同樣的心態。

　　在同一篇文章中，作者引述了一位電力研究所專家的意見，這位專家不斷地削減我們今日對太陽能使用的熱情，他預測「一百年後，太陽能才會提供這世界一定比例的能源需求。他告訴我們，太陽能設備就像游泳池一樣算是奢侈品。」可悲的是，這是事實。

　　雖然美國政府無意發展太陽能的商業化，世界上還是有許多人投入太陽能的發展，在許多其他的國家，太陽能發電正迅速地發展中。三洋公司計畫於2004年在東京建造世界最大的太陽能發電廠，將可輸出3百40萬瓦的電力。1百萬瓦特的電足以照亮1千戶典型的美國家庭。

　　山姆范德倫，過去在加州州長傑瑞‧布朗的合宜科技辦公室（現已廢除）擔任指導的建築師，他告訴加州一家報社「貝尼卡新聞」：「若是政府成為太陽光電的主要顧客，一定能刺激這個產業。」

　　范德倫聲稱，在內華達建一座大型的太陽能發電廠，便可以供給全美的電量。

　　哈伯太空望遠鏡上的太陽能面板在日出中閃閃發光。（照片提供　美國太空總署）

　　在國家太空探險計畫工作的20年經驗中，我看過許多太空梭太陽能動力設備的突破，也就是說建造有效率設備的技術早已存在。

　　在太空總署噴射推進實驗室工作，我接觸到航海家號、伽利略號以及太空站的任務，參與設計出的裝備不僅是當時世界上最先進的，同時也是最省能的，一臺高解析度的電視攝影機只需五到十瓦特的電，而在地球上的一般電視台裡則需用到上萬瓦。

　　國際太空站在太空中完全架設好後，有八個太陽面板翼，每一面長107呎，寬38呎，八片的面積共有32,528平方呎，它們所產生的電力足夠太空站運作15年，這些面版的電力足以提供十戶美國一般家庭所需。

　　我們已經有了太陽能的技術，但卻沒有心去經營。該是拋開石化公司加諸我們怪異觀念的時候了，給太陽能一個機會吧！