A glimmer of light

湮滅之光

How to solve South Africa’s energy crisis

如何解決南非的能源危機(jī)

President Cyril Ramaphosa must face down unions to embrace clean power

總統(tǒng)西里爾·拉馬福薩必須面對工會(huì)，接受清潔能源

Apr 17th 2019 | UPINGTON

IN THE CONTROL room of Scatec Solar in Cape Town Johan Badenhorst gazes at the six monitors on the wall. The screens display the status of the firm’s 16 plants in 11 countries. The three in South Africa are doing nicely, producing enough energy to power 93,000 homes. Problems are rare, says Mr Badenhorst, Scatec’s senior control officer, before correcting himself: once a bird dropped a tortoise on a solar panel, smashing the glass.

在開普敦的斯卡特太陽能公司的控制室里，約翰·巴登霍斯特盯著墻上的六個(gè)監(jiān)視器。屏幕顯示了該公司在11個(gè)國家的16家工廠的狀況。南非的這三家公司都運(yùn)行的很好，生產(chǎn)的能源足以為9.3萬戶家庭提供電力。斯卡代克公司（Scatec）的高級控制官員巴登霍斯特（Badenhorst）先生說，公司很少有問題發(fā)生:有一次一只鳥把一只烏龜?shù)粼谔柲茈姵匕迳希蛩榱瞬Ａ?，至少他在在糾正自己的話之前是這樣說的。

詞匯

Panel/儀表板；嵌板；

Such issues, while upsetting for tortoises, are minor compared with those faced by Eskom, the state-owned utility that supplies 95% of South Africa’s electricity. At least one-third of its power stations are broken or shut for maintenance. Over recent months the talk of the country has been of “l(fā)oad-shedding”: a euphemism for blackouts because Eskom cannot meet demand. March was the worst-ever month for load-shedding, when Eskom regularly took 4,000-megawatts (MW) off the grid, about one-eleventh of its total capacity (45,561MW), or enough to power 3m homes.

這些問題（鳥叼走烏龜）雖然讓烏龜們感到不安，但與南非電力公司埃斯科姆公司（Eskom）所面臨的問題相比，這些問題微不足道。埃斯科姆公司是一家國有公用事業(yè)公司，為南非提供95%的電力。至少有三分之一的電站因維護(hù)而損壞或關(guān)閉。近幾個(gè)月來，該國一直圍繞 “限制用電”談?wù)摚贿@是由于埃斯科姆公司無法滿足需求而導(dǎo)致停電的委婉說法。3月是有史以來最糟糕的一個(gè)月，埃斯科姆公司定期切斷4000兆瓦(MW)的電力供應(yīng)，約占其總?cè)萘?45561 MW)的十一分之一，或者說是足以為300萬戶家庭供電的電量。

詞匯

load-shedding/用電限制；電力平均分配

euphemism/委婉語；委婉說法

blackouts/黑朦；燈火管制；停電

Further failures could have severe consequences. “Eskom is the greatest systemic risk to the South African economy,” says Colin Coleman, the boss for sub-Saharan Africa of Goldman Sachs, a bank. Goldman reckons power cuts could reduce GDP growth by 0.9 percentage points, about half the rate of official growth forecasts.

進(jìn)一步的供電不足可能會(huì)帶來嚴(yán)重的后果?！鞍Ｋ箍颇饭緦δ戏墙?jīng)濟(jì)來說是最大的系統(tǒng)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)因素，”位于撒哈拉以南非洲地區(qū)的高盛財(cái)團(tuán)老板科林?科爾曼說。高盛估計(jì)，停電可能使GDP增長下降0.9個(gè)百分點(diǎn)，約為官方增長預(yù)測的一半。

Eskom also threatens South Africa’s public finances. Since 2007 Eskom’s debt has risen from 40bn to 420bn rand ($30bn). It is effectively insolvent, borrowing to pay interest on its debts. In February the Treasury announced a 69bn rand bail-out. It will not be the last. “There is a real risk of financial meltdown,” says Anton Eberhard, who advises President Cyril Ramaphosa on energy. The president, who took over from Jacob Zuma last year, is standing in elections on May 8th. People may not take kindly to voting in darkness.

埃斯科姆公司還威脅到南非的公共財(cái)政。自2007年以來，埃斯科姆公司的債務(wù)已從400億蘭特(合300億美元)升至4200億蘭特。它實(shí)際上已經(jīng)資不抵債，只能通過借款來支付債務(wù)利息。今年2月，財(cái)政部宣布了一項(xiàng)690億蘭特的紓困計(jì)劃。這不會(huì)是最后一次。西里爾?拉馬福薩(Cyril Ramaphosa)總統(tǒng)的能源顧問安東?埃伯哈德(Anton Eberhard)表示:“確實(shí)存在金融崩潰的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)?！笨偨y(tǒng)，去年從雅各布·祖瑪手中接過總統(tǒng)一職，正在參加5月8日的選舉。人們可能不喜歡在黑暗中投票。

詞匯

Rand/ ?蘭特（南非的貨幣單位）

Insolvent/破產(chǎn)的；無力償還的

bail-out/應(yīng)急措施；紓困

meltdown/災(zāi)難；徹底垮臺(tái)

Eskom’s predicament has deep roots. Between the 1960s and 1990s the apartheid government built big and dirty power stations hoping cheap electricity would spark industrialisation. After white rule ended in 1994 the African National Congress (ANC) had Eskom provide power to the more than two-thirds of black households that lacked electricity, one of the fastest electrification projects in history.

埃斯科姆公司的困境有著深刻的根源。20世紀(jì)60年代至90年代，種族隔離政府建造了又大又臟的發(fā)電站，希望廉價(jià)的電力能刺激工業(yè)化。1994年白人統(tǒng)治結(jié)束后，非洲人國民大會(huì)(ANC)讓埃斯科姆公司為超過三分之二的缺電黑人家庭提供電力，這是歷史上最快的電氣化項(xiàng)目之一。

詞匯

Predicament/窘?jīng)r，困境；狀態(tài)

Apartheid/種族隔離