2021年11月25日 星期四

As Solar Farms Grow, So Does Resistance 美國拓展太陽能 居民反彈變大


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2021/11/26 第360期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 As Solar Farms Grow, So Does Resistance 美國拓展太陽能 居民反彈變大
The Transformation of the Fitness Industry 疫情還沒完 健身產業已大轉型
紐時周報精選
 
As Solar Farms Grow, So Does Resistance 美國拓展太陽能 居民反彈變大
文/Ellen Rosen
譯/李京倫

美國拓展太陽能 居民反彈變大

Hecate Energy, a renewable energy developer, had hoped to install a 500-acre solar farm in Copake, New York, a quiet town nestled between the Catskill and Berkshire mountains. The setting was ideal because of its proximity to an electrical substation, critical to the power transmission.

美國再生能源公司「赫卡特能源」曾想在紐約州卡茲奇山和波克夏山之間的寧靜小鎮科佩克,建置500英畝的太陽能電場。這個地點很理想,因為靠近變電所,這對傳輸電力至關重要。

But after facing an outcry from some in the community who feared the installation would mar the bucolic setting, Hecate scaled back its plans.

但在部分居民擔心太陽能電場會破壞田園景觀而強烈抗議後,赫卡特縮減了電場規模。

"We heard loud and clear," said Diane Sullivan, Hecate's senior vice president for environmental and permitting. "People felt that the project was too large, and they wanted us to shrink it down."

赫卡特環境許可事務資深副總裁黛安.蘇利文說:「我們聽得清清楚楚。居民覺得電場太大,希望我們把它縮小。」

Hecate cut the size of the planned development to 245 acres, which it says will still produce the 60 megawatts of electricity in the original design.

赫卡特把計畫中的電場縮小到占地245英畝,並表示電場仍能依當初設計產生60百萬瓦電力。

The Copake fight mirrors similar battles raging in rural areas like Lake County, Oregon; Clinton County, Ohio; and Troy, Texas. Developers say industrial-scale solar farms are needed to meet the nation's goals to mitigate the rise of climate change, but locals are fighting back against what they see as an encroachment on their pastoral settings, the loss of agricultural land and a decline in property values.

類似科佩克的角力也在美國其他鄉村地區上演,如俄勒岡州萊克郡、俄亥俄州柯林頓郡和德州特洛伊市。開發商說需要工業級太陽能電場,才能達成美國減緩氣候變遷的目標,但當地人抗拒,認為電場會破壞田園景致,使農地變少和房地產價格下跌。

Until recently, most farms were built in the West, where abundant sunshine powers industrial-scale solar arrays and installations were farther away from sight lines. But now, with federal and state governments committing to a reduction in fossil fuels, joined by corporate giants like Amazon and Microsoft, the industry is seeking solar installations in areas where the calculus is more complicated.

直到不久以前,美國多數太陽能電場建置在西部,那裡有充足的陽光讓工業級太陽能電池陣列和設施發電,而這些設施遠離人們的視線。不過如今,由於聯邦和州政府都承諾少用化石燃料,亞馬遜和微軟等企業巨擘也如此,太陽能產業正尋求在考量因素更複雜的地方設置電場。

In the first half of this year alone, developers installed 5.7 gigawatts of solar capacity, for a total of 108.7 gigawatts of capacity, sufficient to reach 18.9 million U.S. homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

根據美國太陽能產業協會的資料,單是今年上半年,開發商新建置的太陽能電場總發電量就達5.7百萬瓩,目標是新建電場總發電量達108.7百萬瓩,以供應美國1890萬戶電力。

"Typically, 5 to 7 acres are needed to create 1 megawatt of power," said Matt Birchby, co-founder and president of Swift Current Energy, a solar developer that is working on a proposal for Clark County, Kentucky.

正規劃在肯塔基州克拉克郡建電場的太陽能公司「史威夫特克倫能源」共同創辦人兼總裁伯奇比說:「通常需要5到7英畝地,才能生產1百萬瓦電力。」

Finding appropriate sites with sufficient sunlight, proximity to the grid and up-to-date infrastructure is challenging.

要找到陽光足夠、靠近電網又有最新基礎設施的適當地點,並不容易。

Approximately 0.5% of U.S. land would need to be covered with solar panels to achieve the decarbonization goals proposed by the Biden administration in April. Urban settings usually lack enough space for significant projects; as a result, 90% of the suitable land sits in rural areas.

要達到拜登政府4月提出的減碳目標,美國大概需要0.5%的土地被太陽能板覆蓋。都會區往往沒有足夠空間可建置大型電場,所以適合建置的區域有90%落在鄉村。

 
The Transformation of the Fitness Industry 疫情還沒完 健身產業已大轉型
文/Mark A. Stein
譯/李京倫

疫情還沒完 健身產業已大轉型

Like restaurants, retailers and other businesses normally conducted in crowded locations open to the public, the health and fitness industry in Europe is scrambling to recover and get its business back on track — as soon as it figures out what its business will look like.

就像餐廳、零售商等通常在人潮聚集處營業並對大眾開放的產業一樣,歐洲健康與健身產業努力想從新冠疫情造成的重創復原,讓生意恢復舊觀——只要健身業能找出疫情後的經營模式。

The orders by public health authorities to close health and fitness clubs several times have had a profound effect on the industry. The consulting firm Deloitte estimates that clubs in Europe lost 15.4% of their members, or more than 10 million people, even when closures were relatively brief. Industry revenue fell twice as much, by almost 33%, as clients froze their accounts or requested refunds.

公共衛生當局在疫情期間幾度下令健身俱樂部停業,對這個產業影響深遠。顧問公司Deloitte估計,雖然歐洲健身俱樂部每次停業都相當短暫,卻共失去15.4%、1000多萬名會員;營收減少幅度則是會員數的兩倍,也就是近33%,因為會員要求凍結會籍或退費。

While the pandemic drags on, club executives are trying to fully understand how fundamentally COVID-19 has transformed their industry, which generated $96.7 billion in global revenue in 2019.

疫情還在拖延,健身俱樂部負責人想徹底了解,疫情如何完全改變自己的產業。2019年全球健身業營收達967億美元。

"For a long time now, I believe that too many health club leaders around the world assume they have the full and undivided attention of the exercising consumer," said Ray Algar, a global fitness industry business adviser and analyst with Oxygen Consulting in Brighton, England. "That the gym sits at the top of some exercise industry hierarchy."

英國英格蘭布萊頓鎮「氧氣顧問公司」全球健身產業商業顧問暨分析師艾爾加說:「我認為長久以來,全球各地有太多健身俱樂部負責人以為,他們能獲得想運動的消費者全心全意的關注。他們以為健身俱樂部處在運動產業階層頂端」。

"The gym may have once had this temporary monopoly, but this is over, and the pandemic has demonstrated that consumers can capably locate and enjoy many different gym substitutes," he said. "What the pandemic has done has made these gym substitutes more visible."

艾爾加說:「健身俱樂部也許曾享有一時的壟斷地位,但這已經結束了,而且疫情期間的經驗顯示,消費者能找到並享受不同於健身俱樂部的許多替代選項。疫情讓健身房的替代選項變得更明顯。」

Stefan Ludwig, a Deloitte partner and leader of the Sports Business Group, said that the lockdowns had indeed had a "significant impact on both consumer behavior and operator offerings."

德勤會計師事務所合夥人暨體育事業部主管路德維格說,防疫封鎖的確「對消費者行為和經營模式有重大影響」。

A report by ClubIntel, a marketing research and consulting firm, found that closed clubs led many people to lose the habit of exercising regularly and caused others to try alternatives, such as biking, joining a walking club, signing up for video classes (dance and boxing are popular options) or buying an interactive device like a Peloton or Mirror.

市場研究和諮詢公司ClubIntel發布報告顯示,健身俱樂部停業讓許多人放棄定期運動習慣,並促使一些人嘗試替代方案,如騎單車、加入健行社團、訂閱視訊課程(舞蹈和拳擊都是熱門選項)或買互動裝置,如派樂騰連網固定式自行車和跑步機或Mirror健身鏡等。

Many customers, the report found, have chosen remote options offered by providers other than a fitness club. To retain or recoup pre-pandemic clientele, clubs need to increase those kinds of options and build a business model with diverse offerings like on-demand and streaming video. Many have already begun.

報告指出,許多消費者選擇遠距課程,而且不是由健身俱樂部提供。為了留住客戶或讓客戶數恢復到疫情前的水準,俱樂部必須增加這些遠距選項,並建立提供多元選擇的商業模式,如隨選和串流視訊等。許多俱樂部已開始這麼做。

 
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