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可再生电力照亮远离电网的非洲茅屋
原作者：ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
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新能源技术给住在远离电网的非洲穷人带来光明和希望。《纽约时报》排名第一文章。
African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable Power 可再生电力点亮远离电网的非洲茅屋 By
& KIPTUSURI, Kenya — For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market.
肯尼亚克普图速里—— 莎拉 Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from ’s electric grid.
她家住的村子离电网很远，给手机充电可不是个简单的问题。 Every week, Ms. Ruto walked two miles to hire a motorcycle taxi for the three-hour ride to Mogotio, the nearest town with electricity. There, she dropped off her cellphone at a store that recharges phones for 30 cents. Yet the service was in such demand that she had to leave it behind for three full days before returning.
每一周，露托小姐都要走两英里的路程，再乘摩的走3个小时到离家最近的通电镇子摩高提奥。在那里，她把手机放在一个店里，每充一次电需要30美分的钱。充电的生意非常红火，露托得将电池放上整整3天，然后才能拿回去。 That wearying routine ended in February when the family sold some animals to buy a small Chinese-made
system for about $80. Now balanced precariously atop their tin roof, a lone solar panel provides enough electricity to charge the phone and run four bright overhead lights with switches.
今年2月，露托家卖了几口牲畜，用80美元买了一台中国制造的太阳能发电装置，从此她再也不用费劲地来回跑路了。现在，一晃一晃固定在露托家铁皮屋顶上的，是一架独立式太阳能电池板，可以为手机提供足够的电力，并点亮了4只带开关的吊灯。 “My main motivation was the phone, but this has changed so many other things,” Ms. Ruto said on a recent evening as she relaxed on a bench in the mud-walled shack she shares with her husband and six children.
“我主要是为了手机，但太阳能电池板同时改变许多其它事情，”最近的一天晚上，露托轻松地坐在自家棚屋里的凳子上说，这间用泥巴墙屋子里住着她和丈夫还有6个孩子。 As small-scale renewable energy becomes cheaper, more reliable and more efficient, it is providing the first drops of modern power to people who live far from slow-growing electricity grids and fuel pipelines in developing countries. Although dwarfed by the big renewable energy projects that many industrialized countries are embracing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, these tiny systems are playing an epic, transformative role.
在发展中国家，随着价格降低，性能可靠及效率提高，小型可再生能源第一次向偏远地区的人们提供现代电力，这些民众住在距离电网与燃料管道很远的地方，电网及燃料管道发展步履艰难。与许多工业国家为遏制温室气体排放而建造的大型可再生能源项目相比，这些微型项目虽然很小，但却发挥着划时代的、彻底的变革作用。 Since Ms. Ruto hooked up the system, her teenagers’ grades have improved because they have light for studying. The toddlers no longer risk burns from the smoky kerosene lamp. And each month, she saves $15 in kerosene and battery costs — and the $20 she used to spend on travel.
自从露托小姐建起了这套装置，有了学习用的照明，她十多岁孩子的学习成绩提高了。小一点的家伙们也不再担心会被冒烟的煤油灯灼伤。每个月她还节省15美元的煤油及电池钱，外加每月跑去充电的20美元花费。 In fact, neighbors now pay her 20 cents to charge their phones, although that business may soon evaporate: 63 families in Kiptusuri have recently installed their own solar power systems.
事实上，邻居们充一次电还给她20美分。不过这桩生意很快就没了：最近克普图速里有60个家庭安装了自家的太阳能发电装置。 “You leapfrog over the need for fixed lines,” said Adam Kendall, head of the sub-Saharan Africa power practice for McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm. “Renewable energy becomes more and more important in less and less developed markets.”
“超越了对固定线路的需求，”全球咨询公司 McKinsey & Company非洲南撒哈拉电力业务总裁亚当 The
estimates that , including 85 percent of Kenyans, and that three billion still cook and heat with primitive fuels like wood or charcoal.
据联合国估计，全世界有15亿人居住在无电地区，其中包括85%的肯尼亚人。30亿人仍然使用木材或木炭这样的原始燃料取暖做饭。 There is no reliable data on the spread of off-grid renewable energy on a small scale, in part because the projects are often installed by individuals or tiny nongovernmental organizations.
小规模的非电网可再生电力的普及情况没有可靠的数据，部分原因是这些项目通常是由个人或非政府组织安装的。 But Dana Younger, senior renewable energy adviser at the International Finance Corporation, the
Group’s private lending arm, said there was no question that the trend was accelerating. “It’s a phenomenon that’ a huge number of these systems are being installed,” Mr. Younger said.
不过，担任隶属世界银行集团的私人借贷机构国际金融公司可再生能源高级顾问的达纳 With the advent of cheap solar panels and high-efficiency LED lights, which can light a room with just 4 watts of power instead of 60, these small solar systems now deliver useful electricity at a price that even the poor can afford, he noted. “You’re seeing herders in Inner Mongolia with solar cells on top of their yurts,” Mr. Younger said.
随着廉价太阳能电池板和高效LED光源的问世，小型太阳能发电系统正在以穷人能够支付的价格提供有用的电力。“你会看到内蒙古牧民都在自己的蒙古包上面装有太阳能电池，”杨格尔先生说。LED点亮一间屋子只要4瓦的电力，普通灯则需要60瓦。 In Africa, nascent markets for the systems have sprung up in Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi and Ghana as well as in Kenya, said Francis Hillman, an energy entrepreneur who recently shifted his Eritrea-based business, , from large solar projects financed by nongovernmental organizations to a greater emphasis on tiny rooftop systems.
能源企业家弗朗西斯 In addition to these small solar projects, renewable energy technologies designed for the poor include simple subterranean biogas chambers that make fuel and electricity from the manure of a few cows, and “mini”
dams that can harness the power of a local river for an entire village.
除了这些小型太阳能项目外，为穷人设计的可再生能源技术还包括简易地下生物燃气池，可以从几头牛的粪便里生成燃料和电力，还包括“微型”水电坝，利用当地河流的力量为整个村庄供电。 Yet while these off-grid systems have proved their worth, the lack of an effective distribution network or a reliable way of financing the start-up costs has prevented them from becoming more widespread.
不过，虽然这些脱离电网的系统已经证实很有价值，但缺少有效的配电网络与提供启动资金的可靠渠道却阻碍了更大范围内的普及。 “The big problem for us now is there is no business model yet,” said John Maina, executive coordinator of , or Scode, a nongovernmental organization based in Nakuru, Kenya, that is devoted to bringing power to rural areas.
Just a few years ago, Mr. Maina said, “solar lights” were merely basic lanterns, dim and unreliable.
麦纳说，仅仅几年前，“太阳能照明”还只是一些最基本的电灯，又昏暗又不可靠。 “Finally, these products exist, people are asking for them and are willing to pay,” he said. “But we can’t get supply.” He said small African organizations like his do not have the purchasing power or connections to place bulk orders themselves from distant manufacturers, forcing them to scramble for items each time a shipment happens to come into the country.
“后来这些产品出现了，人们需要也愿意掏钱购买，”他说。“但我们却无法供应。”他说，像他所在的机构这样规模的非洲组织一般没有从遥远制造商那里大量订购的购买力与关系，所以被迫每次货物运抵后拼命去争取拿货。 Part of the problem is that the new systems buck the traditional mold, in which power is generated by a very small number of huge government-owned companies that gradually extend the grid into rural areas. Investors are reluctant to pour money into products that serve a dispersed market of poor rural consumers because they see the risk as too high.
部分问题在于新的系统猛烈冲击了传统的供电模式，在这个模式下，为数不多的几家大型国营公司负责发电，然后逐渐地将电网延伸到乡村。投资人不愿将金钱投向为贫穷的乡村用户构成的分散市场服务的产品，他们认为风险太大。 “There are many small islands of success, but they need to go to scale,” said Minoru Takada, chief of the United Nations Development Program’s sustainable energy program. “Off-grid is the answer for the poor. But people who control funding need to see this as a viable option.”
“现在已经有了许多成功的岛屿，不过这些岛屿需要上规模，”联合国发展署可持续能源计划主任米诺鲁 Even United Nations programs and United States government funds that promote climate-friendly energy in developing countries hew to large projects like giant
or industrial-scale solar plants that feed into the grid. A $300 million solar project is much easier to finance and monitor than 10 million home-scale solar systems in mud huts spread across a continent.
甚至负责在发展中国家推动环境友好型能源的联合国计划和美国政府基金，也同样固守向电网输电的巨型风场及工业规模的太阳能发电厂的模式。就融资与监管来说，一项价值3亿美元的项目要比分布在一个大洲上无数泥土房子里总价值为1000万美元的家庭太阳能系统容易得多。 As a result, money does not flow to the poorest areas. Of the $162 billion invested in renewable energy last year, , experts estimate that $44 billion was spent in China, India and Brazil collectively, and $7.5 billion in the many poorer countries.
结果，资金没有流到最穷的地区。根据联合国的统计，在去年1620亿美元的可再生能源投资中，专家估计有440亿美元集中花在中国、印度和巴西，有75亿美元投资在许多更穷的国家。 Only 6 to 7 percent of solar panels are manufactured to produce electricity that does no that includes systems like Ms. Ruto’s and solar panels that light American parking lots and football stadiums.
在生产的太阳能电池板中，只有6%-7%生产的电力不是向电网输送；这部分装置包括露托小姐使用的系统，美国停车场和足球场馆使用的照明系统。 Still, some new models are emerging. , a young company supported by a mix of private investment and nonprofit funds, has built 60 village power plants in rural India that make electricity from rice husks for 250 hamlets since 2007.
不过，仍然出现了一些新的模式。“谷糠发电系统公司”是一家由私人投资与非盈利基金联合资助的年轻公司，2007年迄今，这家公司在印度乡村地区建立了60座村级发电厂，用稻谷糠发电，为250个小的村落提供电力。 In Nepal and Indonesia, the United Nations Development Program has helped finance the construction of very small hydroelectric plants that have brought electricity to remote mountain communities. Morocco provides subsidized solar home systems at a cost of $100 each to remote rural areas where expanding the national grid is not cost-effective.
在尼泊尔和印度尼西亚，联合国发展署资助建设规模很小的水电站，把电力送到偏远山区社区。摩洛哥以每套装置补贴100美元资金向偏远的乡村提供家用太阳能发电系统，国家电网覆盖这些地区的投资是没有效益的。 What has most surprised some experts in the field is the recent emergence of a true market in Africa for home-scale renewable energy and for appliances that consume less energy. As the cost of reliable equipment decreases, families have proved ever more willing to buy it by selling a goat or borrowing money from a relative overseas, for example.
在这一领域让专家感到惊奇的是最近非洲出现了真正的家庭可再生能源以及节电家用电器市场。随着可靠设备成本的下降， 非洲家庭更愿意购买这些装置，钱可以从卖掉羊只得来，或者从海外亲戚借来。 The explosion of cellphone use in rural Africa has been an enormous motivating factor. Because rural regions of many African countries lack banks, the cellphone has been embraced as a tool for commercial transactions as well as personal communications, adding an incentive to electrify for the sake of recharging.
非洲乡村井喷式的手机使用一直是巨大的推动因素。由于非洲国家的许多乡村缺少银行，手机作为商业交易以及个人通信的工具而受到热捧。手机需要充电，从而刺激了对电的需求。 , handles an annual cash flow equivalent to more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, most in tiny transactions that rarely exceed $20.
M-Pesa为肯尼亚最大的移动电话转款服务机构，每年处理的现金流相当于该国GDP的十分之一，绝大多数为小金额交易，很少超过20美元。 The cheap renewable energy systems also allow the rural poor to save money on candles, charcoal, batteries, wood and kerosene. “So there is an ability to pay and a willingness to pay,” said Mr. Younger of the International Finance Corporation.
同时，廉价的可再生能源系统让乡村中的穷人可以省去蜡烛、木炭、电池和柴油的花费。国际金融公司的杨格尔先生说：“所以人们有能力并愿意掏钱。” In another Kenyan village, Lochorai, Alice Wangui, 45, and Agnes Mwaforo, 35, formerly subsistence farmers, now operate a booming business selling and installing energy-efficient wood-burning cooking stoves made of clay and metal for a cost of $5. Wearing matching bright orange tops and skirts, they walk down rutted dirt paths with cellphones ever at their ears, edging past goats and dogs to visit customers and to calm those on the waiting list.
在肯尼亚另外一个村庄洛桥莱，45岁的爱丽丝 Hunched over her new stove as she stirred a stew of potatoes and beans, Naomi Muriuki, 58, volunteered that the appliance had more than halved her use of firewood. Wood has become harder to find and expensive to buy as the government tries to limit deforestation, she added.
58岁的纳奥米 In Tumsifu, a slightly more prosperous village of dairy farmers, Virginia Wairimu, 35, is benefiting from an underground tank in which the manure from her three cows is converted to biogas, which is then pumped through a rubber tube to a gas burner.
在稍许繁荣的村子图姆斯弗，农民主要以养牛为生，35岁的弗吉尼亚 “I can just get up and make breakfast," Ms. Wairimu said. The system was financed with a $400 loan from a demonstration project that has since expired.
瓦伊里姆小姐说：“我一起床就可以做早餐。”这套装置是由一个示范项目提供的400美元贷款购买的，该项目已经过期。 In Kiptusuri, the
system purchased by Ms. Ruto is this year’s must-have item. The smallest one, which costs $12, consists of a solar panel that can be placed in a window or on a roof and is connected to a desk lamp and a phone charger. Slightly larger units can run radios and black-and-white television sets.
在克普图速里，露托小姐购买的 系统装置已经成了今年必购的商品。其中最小的价格仅为12美元，由一块太阳能电池板构成，可以装在窗子或屋顶上，与台灯和充电器连接。稍许大一点的装置能带收音机和黑白电视机。 Of course, such systems cannot compare with a grid connection in the industrialized world. A week of rain can mean no lights. And items like refrigerators need more, and more consistent, power than a panel provides.
当然，这种装置是无法与工业社会的电网连接相提并论的。下一周的雨就没有了电灯。还有，电冰箱这样的电器需要更持续，更强大的电能，太阳能电池板无法提供。 Still, in Kenya, even grid-based electricity is intermittent and expensive: families must pay more than $350 just to have their homes hooked up.
然而在肯尼亚，即使电网供电也是时断时续的，而且价格昂贵：光家庭接入电网，每个家庭就得花350美元。 “With this system, you get a real light for what you spend on kerosene in a few months,” said Mr. Maina, of Sustainable Community Development Services. “When you can light your home and charge your phone, that is very valuable.”
“有了这个装置，您可以得到几个月买的煤油才能得到的真正灯光照明，”“可持续社区发展服务组织”的迈纳说。“点亮自己的家庭并为自己的手机充上电，这才是非常有价值的。”
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