Businesses compete to battle California'sblocakouts

Green companies vie not just to generate power but also to store and manage it
原文 ： https://www.economist.com/business/2020/08/27/businesses-compete-to-battle-californias-blackouts

第一段

depending on whom you ask , California is a leader in clean energy or a cautionary tale . Power outages in August prompted stern critiques from Republicans. "In California" , Donald Trump tweeted, "Democrats have intentionally implemented rolling blackouts-forcing Americans in the dark." In addition to provoking outrage and derision, however, the episode is also likely to inspire investment.

重点词汇

• cautionary tale

  • a story that gives a warning

    • Her story is a cautionary tale for women travelling alone.

• vie

  • to compete with other people to achieve or get something

    • Six candidates are currently vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.
    • The two older children tend to vie with the younger one for their mother's attention
    • The two groups of scientists are vying to get funding for their research projects.

• intentionally

  • in a planned or intended way

    • I didn't ignore her intentionally - I just didn't recognize her.
    • She was being intentionally unpleasant

• implement

  • to start using a plan or system

    • The changes to the national health system will be implemented next year.
    • The determination of policy is not your business - your job is to implement it.
    • Local councils will be given some leeway as to how they implement the legislation.
    • He has been vested with the power/authority to implement whatever changes he sees fit.

  • a tool that works by being moved by hand or by being pulled across a surface

    • garden/household/agricultural implements
    • Shopkeepers are not supposed to sell knives and other sharp implements to children.

• provoke

  • to cause a reaction, especially a negative one

    • The prospect of increased prices has already provoked an outcry.
    • Test results provoked worries that the reactor could overheat.
    • Her manifest lack of interest in the project has provoked severe criticism

• outrage

  • a feeling of anger and shock

    • These murders have provoked outrage across the country
    • Many politicians and members of the public expressed outrage at the verdict

  • a shocking, morally unacceptable, and usually violent action

    • The bomb, which killed 15 people, was the worst of a series of terrorist outrages.
    • It's an outrage (= it is shocking and morally unacceptable) that so much public money should have been wasted in this way
    • When the truth came out, there was public outrage.
    • Her speech caused outrage among the gay community

• blackout&&outage&&powercut

  • a period of time when electric power has failed, causing a loss of lights
  • Power lines were blown down and we had a blackout of several hours.

• derision

  • the situation in which someone or something is laughed at and considered stupid or of no value:

    • They treated his suggestion with derision
    • Her speech was met with hoots/howls of derisio

  • actions or statements showing that you think someone or something is ridiculous or of no value

    • Talk of tougher laws was met with derision

• stern

  • severe, or showing disapproval:

    • a stern look/warning/voice
    • She is her own sternest critic.
    • Journalists received a stern warning not to go anywhere near the battleship

  • If something, such as a job, is stern, it is difficult

    • The country's president is facing the sternest test of his authority since he came to power five years ago

• derision

  • mockery ridicule

第二段

The Golden State has long been America's main testing ground for green companies .Californians buy half of all electric cars sold in America. Theirs is the country's largest solar market. As California deals with heat waves ,fires and a goal of carbon-free electricity by 2045, the need for a reliable grid is becoming ever more obvious. For years firms competed to generate clean power in California. Now a growing number are vying to store and manage it, too.

重点词汇

• vying

  • compete

• solar

  • of or from the sun, or using the energy from the sun to produce electric power:

    • They are searching for intelligent life forms in other solar systems.
    • These spacecraft may send back data about the outermost reaches of the solar system.

• grid

  • a pattern or structure made from horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other to form squares

    • A metal grid had been placed over the hole to prevent people from falling in
    • In Barcelona the streets are laid out in/on a grid system.

  • a system of wires for supplying electricity across a large region, country,

    • The national grid is one of the world's largest utilities

第三段

August's blackouts have many causes, including poor planning, an unexpected lack of capacity and sweltering heat in not just California but nearby states from which it sometimes imports power.Long before the outages, however , electricity operators were anxious about capacity. California's solar panels become less useful in the evening, when demand peaks.In November state regulators mandated that utilities procure an additional 3.3 gigawatts(GW) of capacity, including giant batteries that charge when energy is abundant and can sell electricity back to the grid

重点词汇

• capacity

  • the total amount that can be contained or produced

    • The stadium has a seating capacity of 50,000
    • The game was watched by a capacity crowd/audience of 50,000 (= the place was completely full).
    • The larger cars have bigger capacity engines (= the engines are bigger and more powerful).

• sweltering

  • extremely and uncomfortably hot

    • In the summer, it's sweltering in the smaller classrooms.

• panel

  • a small group of people chosen to give advice, make a decision, or publicly discuss their opinions as entertainment:

    • Several suggestions have been offered for adoption by the panel.
    • Your application will need to go forward to a selection panel.

  • a board or surface that has controls and other devices on it for operating an aircraft or other large machine

    • a control/instrument panel

• mandate

  • the authority given to an elected group of people, such as a government, to perform an action or govern a country:

    • At the forthcoming elections, the government will be seeking a fresh mandate from the people.
    • The president secured the Congressional mandate to go to war by three votes.

• utility

  • a service that is used by the public, such as an electricity or gas supply or a train service

    • the administration of public utilities
    • The utility of this substance has been proven in a series of tests.

第四段

Too few such projects have come online to cope with the surge in demand for air-conditioning in the scorching summer. But more are sprouting across the state On August 19th ls Power, an electricity firm backed by private equity, unveiled a 250-megawatt(MW) storage project in San Diego, the largest of its kind in America. In july the county of Monterey said Vistra Energy ,a Texan power company ,could build as much as 1.2GW of storage.

重点词汇

• cope

  • to deal successfully with a difficult situation

    • It must be really hard to cope with three young children and a job.
    • It's only been a year since he died - how's she coping?
    • He had so much pressure on him in his job that eventually he just couldn't cope.

• surge

  • a sudden and great increase

    • An unexpected surge in electrical power caused the computer to crash.
    • There has been a surge in house prices recently.

  • a sudden and great movement forward

    • At the end of the game, there was a surge of fans onto the field.
    • A tidal surge (= sudden and great rise in the level of the sea) caused severe flooding in coastal areas.

  • a sudden increase of an emotion

    • She was overwhelmed by a surge of remorse.

• scorching

  • very hot

    • a scorching summer day
    • t was scorching hot inside the greenhouse

• sprout

  • to produce leaves, hair, or other new developing parts, or (of leaves, hair, and other developing parts) to begin to grow:

    • It takes about three days for the seeds to sprout.
    • Your hair is sticking up - it looks like you're sprouting horns!

• unveil

  • remove a covering like a curtain from a new structure at a formal ceremony in order to show the opening or finishing of a new building or work

    • The memorial to those who had died in the war was unveiled by the Queen.
    • The company recently unveiled a test version of its new search engine.

第五段

The rooftop solar industry stands to benefit from a new Californian mandate that requires new homes to install panels on their roofs from this year. Sunrun, the market leader, is increasingly pairing such residential installations with energy suppliers in the Bay Area to install 13MW of residential solar and batteries. These could supply power to residents in a blackout or feed power into the grid to help meet peak demand. Sunrun is fo confident in its future that it has bid $3.2bn for vivint Solar, its main rival

重点词汇

• rooftop

  • the outside surface of the roof of a building:

    • a magnificent view of the rooftops
    • Police marksmen with rifles were stationed on the rooftops

• residential

  • A residential road, area, etc. has only private houses, not offices and factories.

    • It was not safe to locate the chemicals factory in a residential area
    • The college runs residential courses throughout the summer.
    • The agency deals with residential and commercial property.
    • Rents in residential areas are lower than in the business district.
    • The residential course for writers takes place in August.

• contract

  • a legal document that states and explains a formal agreement between two different people or groups, or the agreement itself:

    • a contract of employment
    • a temporary/building contract
    • They could take legal action against you if you break (the terms of) the contract.
    • Don't sign/enter into any contract before examining its conditions carefully.

  • to make or become shorter or narrower or generally smaller in size

    • A recession is a period when the economy is contracting.
    • Agricultural output has contracted by 2.3 percent.

• bid

  • to offer a particular amount of money for something that is for sale and compete against other people to buy it,

    • She knew she couldn't afford it, so she didn't bid.
    • he communications group has shown an interest in bidding for the company.
    • A foreign collector has bid $500,000 for the portrait.

  • If someone bids to do something, they compete with other people to do it:

    • Paris is bidding to host the next Olympics.

  • an offer of a particular amount of money for something that is for sale:

    • I made a bid of $150 for the painting.
    • She made/put in a bid of £69,000 for the flat, which was accepted.

第六段

Another way to stave off outages is to curb demand . Enel , a European power company, has contracts with local utilities to work with large commercial and industrial clients .When demand rises, Enel pays customers to reduce energy consumption, easing demand on the grid. A company called OhmConnect offers something similar for homeowners.

重点词汇

• stave off

  • to stop something bad from happening, or to keep an unwanted situation or person away, usually temporarily:

    • We were hoping to stave off these difficult decisions until September.

• curb

  • to control or limit something that is not wanted:

    • The government should act to curb tax evasion.
    • He is someone who finds it difficult to curb his fleshly desires.
    • You really need to curb your spending
    • The police are trying to curb under-age drinking.

  • a raised edge along the side of a street, often forming part of a path for people to walk on

    • She stood on the curb and waited until the light turned green to cross the street.

• consumption

  • the amount used or eaten:

    • As a nation, our consumption of junk food is horrifying.
    • We need to cut down on our fuel consumption by having fewer cars on the road.

  • the act of using, eating, or drinking something:

    • The meat was clearly unfit for human consumption (= not safe for people to eat)
    • These products are not for national consumption, but for export.

第七段

Even as such offerings scale up the need for reliability means that fossil fuels will not disappear jest yet. On September 1st California's regulators will vote on whether to delay the retirement of four natural-gas plants in light of the outages. The state remains intent on decarbonising its power system over the next 25 years. But progress may not move in a straight line

重点词汇

• scale up

  • to increase the size, amount, or importance of something, usually an organization or process

    • My company is scaling up its operations in Western Asia.

• fossil

  • the shape of a bone, a shell, or a plant or animal that has been preserved in rock for a very long period

    • Chitinozoans and a few graptolites were found in the unit, but no other fossils.

• fuel

  • a substance that is used to provide heat or power, usually by being burned:

    • Wood, coal, oil, petrol, and gas are all different kinds of fuel.
    • Plutonium is a fuel used to produce nuclear energy.