摘要：SAPPORO, Japan — Ocean winds whip across the beaches, hillsides and sprawling plains of Hokkaido. There’s enough wind energy here
正文翻译
SAPPORO, Japan — Ocean winds whip across the beaches, hillsides and sprawling plains of Hokkaido. There’s enough wind energy here for Japan’s northernmost island to Power itself and export clean electricity to the rest of the country.
日本札幌——海风吹拂着北海道的海滩、山坡和广袤的平原。这里的风能足以让日本最北面的岛屿自给自足，并向全国其他地区输出清洁电力。
But Hokkaido can’t harness all of that power unless it has a way to store energy when breezes are blowing and use it later when the gusts die down.
但北海道无法利用这些能源，除非它有办法在风大时储存能量，并在风力减弱时加以使用。
A wind farm in the town of Setana on Japan's Hokkaido island. Energy produced by such turbines can go to waste if it can't be stored.
位于日本北海道岛濑户名镇的一个风电场。如果无法储存电力的话，风力涡轮机产生的电能可能会浪费。
So, the island is turning to a new generation of batteries designed to stockpile massive amounts of energy — a critical step toward replacing power plants fueled by coal, gas and oil, which create a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
因此，该岛正在转向新一代电池，旨在储存大量能量——这是替代煤、天然气和石油发电的重要一步，而这些传统发电厂产生了全球三分之一的温室气体排放。
Hokkaido is facing a problem that is starting to confront power grids around the world. For the past 150 years, utilities have stored energy in piles of coal or tanks of gas that can be burned on demand. But as countries switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, they need a new kind of backup system that can deliver power whenever someone flips a light switch, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows.
北海道面临着一个全球电网都面临的问题。在过去的150年里，电力公司一直通过储存煤炭或天然气来储存能量，这些能量可以按需求燃烧发电。但随着各国从化石燃料转向清洁能源，他们需要一种新的备用系统，能够在任何人用电时提供电力，而不仅仅是在阳光明媚或风力强劲时才有电。
“Most utilities are definitely recognizing that if they’re adding renewables, they have to add storage,” said Vanessa Witte, a senior analyst at the energy data and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie.
“绝大多数公司确实意识到，如果他们增加可再生能源，就必须增加储能，”能源数据和分析公司伍德麦肯齐的高级分析师瓦妮莎·维特表示。
After decades of development, the world has figured out how to make wind turbines and solar panels cheaply and at massive scale. They’re starting to make a dent in energy production, accounting for 15 percent of electricity globally, according to the International Energy Agency. But now, a few of the regions that have adopted wind and solar most aggressively are finding some of that energy goes to waste because they can’t store it.
经过数十年的发展，世界已经找到了低成本和大规模制造风力涡轮机和太阳能电池板的方法。根据国际能源署的数据，它们开始在能源生产中占据一席之地，全球电力的15%来自于此。但现在，一些采用风能和太阳能的地区发现，由于无法储存，这部分能源有时会被浪费。
Power companies are experimenting with new ways to hold on to that clean electricity, from stashing heat in vats of sand to supersizing the lithium-ion batteries that power laptops and cars. Some 30 miles from Sapporo, the Hokkaido Electric Power Network (HEPCO Network) is deploying flow batteries, an emerging kind of battery that stores energy in hulking tanks of metallic liquid.
电力公司正在探索新的方法来储存清洁电力，从将热量储存在沙子罐、把锂离子电池体积变大之类的，这些电池为笔记本电脑和汽车提供动力。在距离札幌约30英里的地方，北海道电力网络正在部署液流电池，这是一种新开发的电池类型，能够在巨大的金属液体罐中存储电能。
But the technology faces a raft of challenges, including high up-front costs and skeptical financiers. China and Russia dominate the market for Vanadium, the metal that makes flow batteries durable and easy to maintain. “The supply chain for vanadium is extremely precarious,” said Kara Rodby, a battery analyst at the investment firm Volta Energy Technologies.
但该技术面临一系列挑战，包括高昂的前期成本和投资者的质疑。中国和俄罗斯主导着钒市场，而钒是使这种液流电池耐用且易于维护的金属。“钒的供应链极为脆弱，”投资公司Volta Energy Technologies的电池分析师卡拉·罗德比说道。
Still, flow batteries are making their debut in big real-world projects. Sumitomo Electric, the company that built the Hokkaido plant, has also built flow batteries in Taiwan, Belgium, Australia, Morocco and California. Hokkaido’s flow battery farm was the biggest in the world when it opened in April 2022 — a record that lasted just a month before China built one that is eight times bigger and can deliver as much energy as an average U.S. natural gas plant.
尽管如此，液流电池正在大型实际项目中首次亮相。建设北海道工厂的住友电气公司还在台湾（地区）、比利时、澳大利亚、摩洛哥和加利福尼亚建造了液流电池。北海道的液流电池厂在2022年4月开业时是世界上最大的液流电池厂——这一记录仅维持了一个月，随后中国建造了一个规模是其八倍的液流电池厂，其输送的电能相当于美国一个普通的天然气发电厂。
“It looks like flow batteries are finally about to take off with interest from China,” said Michael Taylor, an energy analyst at the International Renewable Energy Agency, an international group that studies and promotes green energy. “When China starts to get comfortable with a technology and sees it working, then they will very quickly scale their manufacturing base if they think they can drive down the costs, which they usually can.”
国际可再生能源机构的能源分析师迈克尔·泰勒说：“看起来液流电池终于要在中国带动之下起飞了，”该机构是一个研究和推广绿色能源的国际组织。“当中国开始对一项技术满意并看到也有效时，他们会迅速扩大生产制造，然后开始降低成本，他们通常就是这么干的。”
This is what the power plants of the future may look like: Instead of stashing coal and gas next to boilers or combustion turbines, they’ll use electrons to store energy inside of giant batteries.
这就是未来电厂的样子：将不在锅炉或燃烧涡轮旁储存煤和天然气，而是利用巨型电池储存电。
A flow battery system, designed to stockpile massive amounts of energy, at a plant on Hokkaido.
一个流电池系统，旨在在北海道的一座工厂中储存大量能源。
If the world is going to power itself with renewable energy, it needs to be ready at a moment’s notice.
All power grids have to pull off a delicate balancing act: There must always be about as many electrons flowing out of power plants as homes and businesses are using. If that balance ever falters, a community could face blackouts — or the utility could waste money making extra energy no one uses.
如果世界要靠可再生能源供电，就必须随时准备好。所有电网都必须达到一种微妙的平衡：发电厂发出的电必须始终与家庭和企业的用电量大致相等。如果这种平衡出现问题，社区可能会面临停电——公司会浪费资金生产投入备用发电设施。
To make sure there’s always enough electricity to go around, energy companies rely on extra-polluting power plants called “peaker plants.” They get their name because they only run when electricity use hits its peak — for example, on a really hot day when everybody runs their air conditioners at once.
为了确保始终有足够的电力供应，能源公司依赖一种“调峰发电厂”的额外产生会污染的发电厂。它们得名于只有在电力使用达到峰值时才运行——例如，在炎热的天气中，大家同时开启空调。
Peaker plants tend to be older, less efficient and more polluting than other plants. Most of the time, they sit idle. But in an emergency, they dump fuel — usually natural gas — into their combustion turbines to generate electricity fast. That keeps power flowing steadily to homes, businesses and factories, but it also pumps pollution into the air.
调峰电厂往往比其他发电厂更老旧、效率低且污染严重。大多数时间，它们处于闲置状态。但在紧急情况下，它们会将燃料——通常是天然气——注入燃气轮机，以快速发电。这能确保电力稳定供应给家庭、企业和工厂，但同时也会向空气中排放污染物。
Wind turbines and solar panels don’t pollute, but they can’t make more electricity on demand. They only produce as much energy as the sun and the wind provide, which changes throughout the day or year depending on the weather.
风力发电机和太阳能电池板不会造成污染，但它们无法按需发电。它们只会根据太阳光多寡和风的供应量大小产生电力，这会随着天气的变化而有所不同。
One way to smooth out those bumps is to use batteries to store renewable energy when it’s plentiful and use it later when it becomes scarce.
平缓这些波动的一种方法是利用电池在可再生能源充足时储存电能，并在需要时再使用。
The energy held in batteries mirrors the tanks of gas sitting next to a combustion turbine waiting to be burned — except batteries can send out electricity even faster than a gas turbine can ramp up, and they don’t create carbon pollution.
电池中蕴藏能量类似于燃气轮机旁边等待燃烧而放置的油罐——只不过电池可以比燃气轮机更快地释放电力，而且不会产生碳污染。
Utilities are already building battery farms in regions that have added a lot of wind and solar power, such as California and Texas. So far, most of these batteries are lithium-ion, similar to the ones in a phone, laptop or electric car. Because they’re already built in bulk for other industries, they’ve become the default option for power companies.
公司已经在加州和德克萨斯州这些风能和太阳能发电量高的地区建设电池工厂。到目前为止，这些电池大多数是锂离子电池，类似于手机、笔记本电脑或电动汽车中的电池。由于它们已经为其他行业大规模生产，因此已成为电力公司的默认选择。
But experts say there might be better options. Lithium-ion batteries are perfect for smartphones because they’re lightweight and fit in small spaces, even if they don’t last long and have to be replaced frequently. Utilities have a different set of priorities: They need to store millions of times more energy, and they have much more room to work with.
但专家表示，可能有更好的选择。锂离子电池非常适合智能手机，因为它们轻便且适合小空间，尽管它们的使用寿命不长且需要频繁更换。公司的侧重点有所不同：它们需要存储数百万倍的能量，并且可利用的空间也多。
“If you think about utility-scale stationary applications, maybe you don’t need lithium-ion batteries. You can use another one that is cheaper and can provide the services that you want like, for example, vanadium flow batteries,” said Francisco Boshell, a researcher at the International Renewable Energy Agency.
“如果考虑到一定规模大小的固定应用，也许你不需要锂离子电池。你可以使用其他更便宜的电池，能够满足你所需要的服务，比如说，钒流电池，”国际可再生能源署的研究员弗朗西斯科·博斯赫尔说。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Energy held in the flow batteries at the Hokkaido plant mirrors tanks of gas waiting to be burned. But it doesn't create carbon pollution.
在北海道工厂的流电池中储存的能量就像等待燃烧的油罐。但它不会产生二氧化碳排放污染。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
To power cities with renewable energy, you need bigger batteries.
Inside a sprawling two-story warehouse, HEPCO Network is storing electricity in 130 gleaming steel and plastic tanks. They can stockpile enough energy to power more than 27,000 Japanese homes for four hours.
为了用可再生能源为城市供电，你需要更大的电池。在一个宽敞的两层仓库内，日本电力网络公司正在用130个闪亮的钢制和塑料罐储存电力。这些罐可以储存足够的电能，为超过27,000个日本家庭提供四小时的电力。
Each 10,000-gallon tank holds tiny particles of the metal vanadium, which float around in water. This metallic soup holds the key to hoarding energy in massive quantities.
每个10,000加仑的罐中都装有微小的钒颗粒，这些颗粒漂浮在水中。这种金属混合液是储存大量能量的关键。
Vanadium is a shape-shifter. If you add or remove electrons from its atoms the element’s electrical charge will become more positive or negative, and its color changes from purple to green, blue and yellow. The metal’s rainbow color palette led Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefstrom to name the element after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty. But vanadium’s ability to change its charge is what makes it so useful in a battery.
钒是一种“变形金刚”。如果你给它的原子增加或转移电子，这种元素的电荷将变正或负，其颜色也会从紫色变为绿色、蓝色和黄色。这种金属的彩虹色调使瑞典化学家尼尔斯·加布里埃尔·塞夫斯特伦将其命名为“瓦娜蒂斯”，这是斯堪的纳维亚美神的名字。钒的电荷变化能力使其在电池中非常有用。
Here’s how it works:
以下是其工作原理：
One tank holds vanadium with a more positive charge, while the other tank holds vanadium with a more negative charge. You can think of them like the + and - sides of the batteries sitting in a TV remote or a flashlight.
一个储罐储存带有更正电荷的钒，而另一个储罐储存带有负电荷的钒。你可以把它们想象成电视遥控器或手电筒中的电池的正负两极。
When HEPCO Network wants to charge the batteries, it uses energy from wind turbines to move electrons from the positive side of the membrane to the negative side, which creates an imbalance: Now there are a lot more electrons crammed into the negative tank than the positive tank, and they’re itching to spread out evenly once again.
当日本电力网络公司想要给电池充电时，它利用风力涡轮机发出的电，也就是电子从膜的正极移动到负极，这就造成了不平衡：现在负罐中的电子数量远远超过正罐，而它们迫切希望再次均匀分布。
When HEPCO Network wants to use the energy stored inside the batteries, it lets electrons flow the other way. Their movement creates an electric current that can power homes and businesses across the island.
当日本电力网络公司想要利用储存在电池中的电能时，它允许电子朝相反方向液流。它们的运动产生了电流，可以为整个岛屿的家庭和企业供电。
Flow batteries are designed to tap giant tanks that can store a lot of energy for a long time. To boost their storage capacity, all you have to do is build a bigger tank and add more vanadium. That’s a big advantage: By contrast, there’s no easy way to adjust the storage capacity of a lithium-ion battery — if you want more storage, you have to build a whole new battery.
液流电池的设计旨在利用巨大的储罐，可以长时间存储大量能量。要提高其储存能力，你所需做的就是建造一个更大的储罐并添加更多的钒。这是一个重大优势：相比之下，锂离子电池的储存容量没有简单的调整方法——如果你想要更多的储存，就必须建造一个全新的电池。
The flow batteries in this plant are designed to store energy for about four hours of use, which is on par with lithium-ion batteries. But Sumitomo Electric says it expects future projects will aim to double that duration to eight to 10 hours. That’s about what they’d need to last overnight when solar panels are dormant, or to fill in the gaps between gusts of wind.
该工厂中的液流电池设计用于储存大约四小时的电能，这与锂离子电池相当。但住友电气表示，预计未来的项目将把这一时间延长一倍，达到 8 到 10 小时。 当太阳能电池板处于休眠状态时，这个时间大约可以维持过夜，或者用来填补阵风之间的空隙时间。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
One major barrier to building more of these battery farms is finding enough vanadium. Three-quarters of the world’s supply comes as a by-product from 10 steel mills in China and Russia, according to Rodby, who got her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying the design and market for flow batteries. Australia, South Africa and the United States also produce vanadium, but in much smaller quantities.
建设更多这些电池储蓄的一个主要障碍是找到足够的钒。她在麻省理工学院获得博士学位，研究液流电池的设计和市场。澳大利亚、南非和美国也生产钒，但数量要小得多。据罗德比介绍，全球四分之三的供应来自中国和俄罗斯的10家钢铁厂的副产品，
Mines that have been proposed could boost supply. And some flow battery start-ups are trying to sidestep the vanadium problem entirely by using different materials that are easier to buy.
提议中的矿山可能会增加供应。而一些流电池初创公司正试图完全绕过钒的问题，使用更容易购买的不同材料。
The other hurdle is their up-front cost. Vanadium flow batteries are at least twice as expensive to build as lithium-ion batteries, Rodby said, and banks are hesitant to lend money to fund an unfamiliar technology.
另一个障碍是它们的前期成本。罗德比表示，钒流电池的建造成本至少是锂离子电池的两倍，银行对于资助这种不熟悉的技术持谨慎态度。
But experts say flow batteries can be cheaper in the long run because they’re easier to maintain and last longer. A lithium-ion battery might have to be replaced after 10 years, but Rodby says flow batteries can last much longer. “There really is no finite lifetime for a flow battery in the way there is for lithium-ion,” Rodby said.
但专家表示，液流电池从长远来看可能更便宜，因为它们更易于维护且寿命更长。锂离子电池可能在10年后需要更换，但Rodby表示流电池可以使用更长时间。“液流电池并没有像锂离子电池那样有限的使用寿命，”罗德比说。
Sumitomo Electric President Osamu Inoue said his company guarantees its flow batteries will last 20 years — but the vanadium inside can be reused forever in future batteries. The company’s oldest commercial batteries have been running for 11 years so far.
住友电气的总裁井上治表示，他的公司保证液流电池的使用寿命为20年——但内部的钒可以在未来的电池中无限次重复使用。该公司最古老的商业电池迄今已运行了11年。
Wind and solar power are coming. Batteries can keep them from causing chaos on the power grid.
Just outside the building that houses the gleaming floor-to-ceiling tanks, Sumitomo has built a new version of its flow batteries, this time tucking all of their components into shipping containers. That makes them faster and cheaper to build than the $100 million indoor demonstration plant next door.
风能和太阳能正在崛起。电池可以防止它们在电网中引发混乱。就在那座拥有光滑落地窗的建筑外，住友公司建造了新版本的液流电池，这次将所有组件都放入了集装箱中。 与隔壁耗资 1 亿美元的室内示范工厂相比，这使得建造速度更快，成本更低。
The batteries connect to homes, businesses and power plants all over Hokkaido by plugging into the power grid.
这些电池通过接入电网，与北海道各地的家庭、企业和发电厂连接。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Power lines running from the flow battery plant on Hokkaido.
从北海道液流电池厂延伸出的电力线路。
These batteries help Hokkaido keep a steady balance between the amount of energy its power plants generate and the amount of electricity its homes and businesses use. But they’re not the only way to maintain that balance: While Hokkaido is on a battery-building spree, it’s also beefing up undersea power lines to share electricity with the rest of Japan.
这些电池帮助家庭和企业使用的电力和发电厂产生的电之间达到平衡稳定。但这并不是维持这种平衡的唯一方式：虽然北海道正在大规模建电池，但它也在加强海底电力线路，以便与日本其他地区共享电力。
So far, it’s working: Even though Hokkaido gets nearly a fifth of its electricity from wind and solar, it doesn’t face blackouts and it wastes almost zero energy.
到目前为止，它正在发挥作用：尽管北海道近五分之一的电力来自风能和太阳能，从未面临停电，几乎没有浪费任何能源。
Having a stable grid allows Hokkaido to keep building more renewable energy, bringing it closer to its goal of cutting power plant emissions to zero by 2050. The flow batteries sitting in the shipping containers outside Sapporo paved the way for HEPCO Network to add 15 new wind farms around Hokkaido. The turbines generate about 3 percent of the island’s electricity without pollution.
拥有稳定的电网使得北海道能够继续建设更多的可再生能源，朝着到2050年将发电厂排放量减少到零的目标更进一步。位于札幌外的集装箱中的液流电池给日本电力网络公司增加了15个新的风电场铺平了道路。这些涡轮机产生了大约3%的岛屿电力，且没有污染。
Experts say the world will need to build many more batteries like these to stay on track to cut greenhouse emissions to zero by 2050. Over the next six years, utilities will have to build 35 times as many batteries as there are today to soak up all extra renewable energy that will come online, according to the International Energy Agency.
专家表示，世界需要建设更多这样的电池，以确保在2050年前将温室气体排放量减少到零。根据国际能源署的说法，在接下来的六年中，需要建造的电池数量是目前的35倍，才能确保将上线的所有额外可再生能源发电利用起来。
The point of all this battery building is on display off the coast of Hokkaido.
所有这些电池建造的意义都在北海道沿岸得到了体现。
Earlier this year, Japan’s biggest offshore wind farm opened just off the coast of Ishikari, a seaside town on the outskirts of Sapporo. The 14 turbines — each about 20 stories tall — face across the water from a natural gas plant that would shut down if Hokkaido’s clean energy plans succeed.
今年早些时候，日本最大的海上风电场在札幌郊区海岸开幕，这里是札幌市郊的一个海滨小镇。14个涡轮机——每个大约20层楼高——面朝着一座天然气发电厂，如果北海道的清洁能源计划成功，这座发电厂将会关闭。
来源：龙腾网看世界