评论
打印
Before we get more into the details of your reporting, I do just want to lay a little bit of the groundwork here about how solar panels work and why they've ended up on a lot of people's roofs.
在我们深入了解你的报道细节之前，我想先跟大家说一下太阳能电池板的工作原理，以及它们为什么会出现在那么多人的屋顶上。
So talk to me about the promise of rooftop solar panels.
跟我谈谈屋顶太阳能板的保障。
The promise is amazing. The promise of rooftop solar panels is you pay this large upfront cost, but then your electricity bills just plummet for years to come.
保障很惊人。屋顶太阳能电池板的保障是，你前期支付了这笔巨额成本，但你的电费在未来几年里会大幅下降。
You're saving thousands of dollars on your electricity. You're more independent from the grid.
你可以省下几千美元的电费。你不再那么依赖电力系统了。
If you install a battery along with your rooftop solar panels, then that means that, in the case of a blackout or something like that, you're fine.
如果你在屋顶的太阳能电池板上安装了电池，这意味着，在停电等情况下，你家不会断电。
You can continue to power your home. The promise is great, and there have been lots of people who have been making use of this over the years.
你可以继续给家里供电。这个保障很棒，多年来有很多人一直在使用它。
Let's break down the benefits and challenges of rooftop solar.
我们来分析一下屋顶太阳能的好处和挑战。
Let's start with what you learned in your reporting about the challenges.
我们先来看一下你在报道中了解到的挑战。
Why is the picture around rooftop solar a little bit more complicated?
为什么关于屋顶太阳能的情况比较复杂？
I had a similar reaction to you when I first heard about this argument.
我第一次听到这个争论时，我的反应跟你很像。
I heard an expert say, rooftop solar may not actually cut carbon emissions the way that we think.
我听一位专家说，屋顶太阳能实际上可能不会像我们想象的那样减少碳排放。
I thought, Wait, how could that be? What do you mean?
我想，等等，这怎么可能？这话什么意思？
That's literally the whole point that they're supposed to cut carbon emissions. It is the whole point.
这就是它们减少碳排放的全部意义所在啊。这才是关键啊。
Basically, it's a little bit nuanced, but effectively, what some experts say is that rooftop solar is just not the most efficient way to get solar power onto the grid.
基本上，这有点微妙，但其实，一些专家表示，屋顶太阳能并不是将太阳能接入电网的最有效方式。
Rooftop solar is just much more expensive than building large solar farms out in the desert.
在屋顶安装太阳能比在沙漠中建造大型太阳能农场要昂贵得多。
Basically, imagine a place where you have hundreds of solar panels lined up across a big space out in the desert, out in the countryside.
想象一下，在一个地方，有数百个太阳能电池板在沙漠里，在乡下的一个大空间里排成一行。
That's what we're talking about and that's basically what we call utility-scale solar, which means solar that's big enough to be hooked in with the major utility.
我们讨论的就是这种，这就是我们所说的公用事业规模的太阳能，它意味着太阳能足够强大，可以连接到主要的公用事业。
One way to think about it is that it's a little bit like getting utility-scale solar is like buying something in bulk at Costco.
你可以这么想，获得公用事业规模的太阳能就像在好市多买大宗商品。
It's really cheap. You can get a ton of it at once. It's very efficient. Installing rooftop solar, it's a little bit more artisanal.
它很便宜。你可以一次买很多。它非常高效。安装屋顶太阳能，更需要手工活。
It's like you're getting something that is specifically designed for your home, for your area.
也就是你买的东西是专门为你家和你所在的地区设计的。
It takes a lot more people involved, a lot more craftsmanship and by virtue of that, it's more expensive.
它需要更多的人参与，需要更多的工艺，正因为如此，它也会更昂贵。
It takes a bespoke process every time that you install them.
每次安装都需要一个私人定制的过程。
Because your roof might not be the perfect pitch for where the sun is, and so then they have to rejigger it based on the best angles you can get with the roof that you have.
因为你的屋顶可能没有最佳的太阳照射位置，所以他们必须根据你屋顶的最佳角度来重新调整它。
Exactly. And it's a long process.
确实如此。而且这是一个漫长的过程。
If you're meeting the contractor and they're meeting with the homeowners and making sure everyone understands what's going on, it's not the same as installing this half-mile-long solar panel out somewhere in Nevada, Utah.
你需要去见承包商，他们去见房主，确保每个人都知道是什么情况，这和在犹他州内华达州的某个地方安装这个半英里长的太阳能电池板是不一样的。
