VOA常速英语2015--新型风力发电机不会伤及鸟类（在线收听）

新型风力发电机不会伤及鸟类

In 2002, Spanish inventor David Yanez saw a short film about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S., collapsing in strong wind.

2002年西班牙发明家大卫·亚尼斯看了一部关于强风造成美国塔科马海峡吊桥倒塌事故的短片。

It was a vivid example of the powerful vibrations wind can create when it blows past a long pole, such as a car antenna or even a stick of bamboo. That gave him the idea for a new type of wind-energy generator.

这直观地反映出风吹过汽车天线甚至竹竿等长杆时所产生的强振。这一点让他受到启发，想到发明新型风能发电机的点子。

“The initial philosophy or spirit was to create a generator of dreams that had all the qualities one would want: It should be as cheap as possible, need as little maintenance as possible, the setup as simple as possible."

“最初的理念或者说精神是发明一种人们所期望具有梦幻般性能的发电机，造价低廉，几乎不需要维护，而且安装也极尽简单。”

Yanez and his friend Raoul Martin took the idea to an engineering firm, where they were told it would never work.

亚尼斯和他的朋友劳尔·马丁带着这个想法走访了一家工程公司。而得到的回复是这是天方夜谭。

Undiscouraged, they started experimenting on their own in a small wind tunnel they built.

但两人并不气馁，他们随后开始在自己建造的小风洞里进行试验。

Good initial results were repeated by a larger working model called Vortex installed in a nearby field.

他们随后在附近地区建造了名为涡流的更大工作模型进行重复试验得到结果很是理想。

“What we have is a mast, which is the top piece and acts as a blade.It's constructed from the same material as a conventional generator,and what it does is it oscillates,transmitting the oscillation to a conventional alternator,which by its own oscillation converts the wind's energy into electric energy.”

“我们有个桅杆，而这是起到扇叶作用的顶部装置。这是跟传统发电机一样的相同建造材料。它所做的是进行摆动，把这种摆动传输到一台传统的交流发电机，再通过交流发电机把风能转换为电能。”

Yanez said the output of the 6-meter-tall generator, and even that of smaller models, was better than expected.

亚尼斯表示这台6米高的风力发电机，即使是较小的型号输出也优于预期。

The Vortex creates about 30 percent less energy than a comparable bladed wind turbine,but it is lighter and cheaper to build and maintain.

涡流发电机跟同类有扇叶风力涡轮机相比，产生的能源要少大约30%，不过，相对较轻，制造和维护价格也更低廉。

It is made mostly of reinforced plastic and has very few moving parts.

它主要是由强化塑料制成而且可移动零件很少。

Also,it does not create noise and-even more important for many environmentalists-it does not present a threat to passing birds.

另外它不会产生噪音，而且对环保人士而言更重要的是不会对路过的鸟类构成威胁。

The current prototype works at wind speeds ranging from 1.5 to 7 meters per second.

目前原型机运转所需风速在每秒1.5到7米之间。

The inventors say the next step is building a 12.5-meter tall bladeless generator with a 4-kilowatt capacity that could power small businesses or individual homes, or provide supplemental power to a main grid.

两位发明人表示下一步是建立一台容量为4千瓦，12.5米高的无扇叶发电机，可为小公司或个人住户提供电能，或者为主电网提供补充电力。

The commercial version of the Vortex Bladeless generator should be ready for the market by 2017.

涡流无扇叶发电机的商业版或会于2017年之前进入市场。