Each Paragraph at a Glance
bright scene of new energy
fossil fuel is likely to die
renewables' problem
renewalbes need a lot of investment
only 7% is from renewables
subsidy problems
price of energy slumps
little investment in conventional energy
marginal cost
renewables push expensive producers off
intermittency
grid's upgrade
long-run vs. short-term
where to invest
insulate
collapse
clean-energy paradox
eat its own tail
investment shy away from renewables
business model and markets are broken
eat into demand
utility death spiral
prices high and low
less dependence on the grid
towards subsidy-free
package
storage
innovation
obscure and slow
not a success that can be copied
Outline
Renewables flourish in some places and forecast the death of fossil fuel. But they have implied problems. Though subsidized heavily, they only consist 7% of the whole energy. The low prices of renewables are driving utilities as well as investment away. Intermittency of renewables can be solved by storage and grid's upgrade, but these are too far away to settle the present problems. Renewables shall be provided in a package in a subsidy-free style. While tech firms are making innovative progress on renewables, it is obscure that who shall pay for the public part of the package and the progress may be slow. The current success in small places are not the full picture.
Words and Phrases
south-facing roofs
cowsheds are blanketed with blue photovoltaic(PV) solar panels
If something such as snow blankets an area, it covers it.
After the football game, the terraces were blanketed with trash.
photovoltaic 形容词 ‘电子’光电伏特的
produce manure that generates biogas...
Manure is animal faeces, sometimes mixed with chemicals, that is spread on the ground in order to make plants grow healthy and strong.
biogas n. 生物气，沼气
back up the wind and solar generators
backup分开来就是动词了
All told, the village produces...
as a complete total, altogether
He counted three times and there were 128 yuan, all told.
the villagers are handsomely rewarded for their greeness
A handsome sum of money is a large or generous amount. (FORMAL)
Wang Jianlin, the richest man in China, earns a handsome profit on real estate.
A handsome woman has an attractive appearance with features that are large and regular rather than small and delicate. 这个解释挺有意思，那个女明星算handsome?朱莉娅·罗伯茨？
in 2016 they pocketed about 6m from subsidies
If you say that someone pockets something such as a prize or sum of money, you mean that they win or obtain it, often without needing to make much effort or in a way that seems unfair. (JOURNALISM)
When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman pockets the final victory.
If you are out of pocket, you have less money than you should have or than you intended, for example because you have spent too much or because of a mistake.
After the stock market's disaster, I was out of pocket.
sb. has a point
sb.'s idea is right
I have to admit you have a point on it.
the things (that) it is based on are anathema to electricity markets
If something is anathema/ən'æθəmə/ to you, you strongly dislike it.
Snape was anathema to James Potter.
governments poured $150bn into supporting such investment
If something such as information pours into a place, a lot of it is obtained or given. =flood
注意pour sth. into (doing) sth.
He poured great effort into raising his children after his wife passed away.
...is still very much the exception, not the rule
If something is the rule, it is the normal state of affairs.
In terms of reducing climate risks
in the matter of；on the subject of；especially about 关于；特别是
In terms of money they're quite rich, but not in terms of happiness.
In terms of skill he is an old hand.
brought with it falling cost
bring with sb. sth. 可以用来表示隐含的，不那么强烈的因果关系
Renewables are still on the pricey side in many places 与前面的falling cost形成对比
In terms of age he is still on the young side.
a lot less subsidy than it has attracted to date
to date FORMAL up to the present time
iPhone is still a star product to date, but what about 5 years later?
a perennial disappointment
You use perennial /pər'eniəl/ to describe situations or states that keep occurring or which seem to exist all the time; used especially to describe problems or difficulties.
A perennial plant lives for several years and has flowers each year. Perennialis also a noun.多年生的（植物）
a revenue-neutral economy-wide carbon tax
revenue-neutral Taxing procedure that allows the government to still receive the same amount of money despite changes in tax laws. The government may lower taxes for one particular group of people, but raise taxes for another group. This allows the revenue that they receive to remain unchanged (neutral).
economy-wide involving the whole of a country's economy: Employment in services fell by 50,000 last month, contributing to the slight rise in the economy-wide unemployment rate.
produced gluts and pushed down prices
[N-COUNT] usu sing, usu with supp If there is a glut of something, there is so much of it that it cannot all be sold or used.
There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.
...a world oil glut.
=surplus
[VERB] be V-ed with n, V n
If a market is glutted with something, there is a glut of that thing. (BUSINESS)
The region is glutted with hospitals...
Soldiers returning from the war had glutted the job market.
this has been somewhat masked by...
If one thing masks another, it prevents people from noticing or recognizing the other thing.
In Europe the glut of renewables is more starkly seen for what it is.
stark(BARE)/stɑːk/US/stɑːrk/ adjective bare, simple or obvious, especially without decoration or anything which is not necessary; severe or extreme
Stark changes have taken place in the forest.
stark(COMPLETELY)/stɑːk/US/stɑːrk/ adverb completely or extremely
The boys went to swim in the pond, stark naked.
starkers/ˈstɑː.kəz/US/ˈstɑːr.kɚz/ adjective[after verb]UK INFORMAL OFTEN HUMOROUS naked
The result has been havoc for the old-style utilities.
[N-UNCOUNT] Havoc is great disorder, and confusion. 注意是不可数名词。
What you did has caused havoc in the party.
wrote off 120bn pounds of assets because of low power prices
If someone writes off a debt or an amount of money that has been spent on a project, they accept that they are never going to get the money back. (BUSINESS)
Finally, the boards decided to write off the debt of the broken client.
If you write someone or something off, you decide that they are unimportant or useless and that they are not worth further serious attention. =dismiss
Lacking skill, I'm afraid to be written off.
If someone writes off a vehicle, they have a crash in it and it is so badly damaged that it is not worth repairing. (BRIT)
My rich friend lent a Lamborghini and I wrote if off.
If you write off a plan or project, you accept that it is not going to be successful and do not continue with it.
The country conceded that it was going to write off hosting the Olympics.
that were deregulated in the late 20th century
To deregulate something means to remove controls and regulations from it.
A market economy is an economic system where decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution are deregulated.
lowering wholesale prices
[N-UNCOUNT] usu N n [ADV] ADV after v sold wholesale [ADJ] ADJ n 批发
at first blush
[literary] when first thought of or considered 乍一想，经初步考虑:
The solution was, at first blush, a workable one.
renewables are intermittent
[ADJ]Something that is intermittent happens occasionally rather than continuously. =sporadic /spər'ædɪk/
[N] intermittency
It is rather annoying that the door of our building goes wrong intermittently.
such plants are shut out of the market
If you shut something or someone out, you prevent them from getting into a place, for example by closing the doors.
If you shut out a thought or a feeling, you prevent yourself from thinking or feeling it. =block out
If you shut someone out of something, you prevent them from having anything to do with it.
Due to the maximum amount of application, Chinese citizens are shut out of the visa lottery of the U.S.
in the doldrums
the doldrums/d'ɒldrəmz/ [pl] parts of the ocean near the equator where there is little or no wind 赤道附近无风的海域; 赤道无风带.
If an activity or situation is in the doldrums, it is very quiet and nothing new or exciting is happening.
The consumer market stays in the doldrums, which implies an economic malaise.
fossil-fuel production capacity clings on
cling (on) to sth phrasal verb to try very hard to keep something
The old dictator clung on for years.
backup diesel generators
[N-MASS] Diesel or diesel oil is the heavy oil used in a diesel engine. 柴油
[N-COUNT] A diesel is a vehicle which has a diesel engine.
IDC centers need backup diesel generators in case of a power failure.
Solar cannibalises its own competitiveness away
If one of a company's products cannibalizes the company's sales, people buy it instead of any of the company's other products. (BUSINESS)
shy away from them
If you shy away from doing something, you avoid doing it, often because you are afraid or not confident enough.
We frequently shy away from making decisions.
I often shy sway from talking to pretty girls.
Ever-lower capital costs could go some way to bucking this trend.
go some way towards doing sth also go a long way towards doing sth, to help a little or a lot to make something happen 对于做某事有点（很有）帮助:
ideas that go some way towards reducing environmental problems 对于减少环境问题略有帮助的想法
Nuclear fusion goes a long way to providing energy to humans.
buck the trend to be noticeably different from the way that a situation is developing generally, especially in connection with financial matters:
This company is the only one to have bucked the trend of a declining industry.
While smartphones see a decline in global market, Chinese manufacturers buck the trend.
private investment will dry up
If a supply of something dries up, it stops.
Investment could dry up and that could cause the economy to falter...
If you dry up when you are speaking, you stop in the middle of what you were saying, because you cannot think what to say next.
I always dry up when asked some personal questions.
they also eat into demand
If something eats into your time or your resources, it uses them, when they should be used for other things.
I am fed up with trifles that eat into my time.
not least because it has had to...
there are several reasons but this is an important one
moderate the fluctuations of renewable energy
If you moderate something or if it moderates, it becomes less extreme or violent and easier to deal with or accept.
If something fluctuates, it changes a lot in an irregular way.
fluctuation [N-VAR] usu N in/of n
faces an incipient "utility death spiral"
An incipient/ɪns'ɪpiənt/ situation or quality is one that is starting to happen or develop. (FORMAL)
...an incipient economic recovery...
=impending
fall precipitously around the world
A precipitous/prɪs'ɪpɪtəs/ change is sudden and unpleasant.
When the news spread like wildfire, the company's stock price surged precipitously.
levellised cost of electricity, also Levelized cost of electricity(LCOE), also known as Levelized Energy Cost (LEC), is the net present value of the unit-cost of electricity over the lifetime of a generating asset.
keep demand in line with supply
in agreement with 符合；根据
liken the upheaval facing utilities to that...
If you liken one thing or person to another thing or person, you say that they are similar.
The pain is often likened to being drilled through the side of the head.
=compare
nibble away at bits of utilities' traditional business models
When an animal nibbles something, it takes small bites of it quickly and repeatedly.
Nibble away means the same as nibble
scream blue murder, also scream bloody murder (American & Australian informal)
to shout or to complain very loudly
slow and fitful
Something that is fitful happens for irregular periods of time or occurs at irregular times, rather than being continuous.
leaving climate risks largely unabated
If something continues unabated, it continues without any reduction in intensity or amount.
The fighting has continued unabated for over 24 hours.
...his unabated enthusiasm for cinema.
lay waste the world's conventional electricity utilities
cause wide and great damage to；destroy and leave in ruins 损毁；蹂躏
Enemy soldiers laid waste the land.
觉得做完逻辑图后心好累，各个主体间的关系真是剪不断理还乱。后来参考了笃师的逻辑图，觉得她真是清晰了好多。如果要用几句话概括这篇文章，我会说：可再生能源发电的边际成本很低，好处在于可以淘汰高边际成本的化石燃料，坏处在于不断压低电力批发价导致可再生能源本身也缺乏盈利点，进一步导致投资热情的大幅下降；另一方面，老旧的电网使得化石、水力、核能发电不得不继续运转作为可再生能源的后备，与降低碳排放背道而驰。下一步政府应该仔细考虑补贴方式、升级电网、加强电力储备设施建设，使得新老能源之间进行平滑的过度升级。
One more thing...
补充阅读更为简约地说明了可再生能源目前面临的困境以及应对建议。首先，为了降低碳排放，政府通过补贴推动可再生能源的发展，但是将其强行接入“古老”的电网是问题的核心。
文章进一步小结了造成困难局面的三个原因：1）政府补贴扭曲了市场；2）绿色能源的非不间断供电，使得传统发电方式无法退市；3）绿色能源极低的边际成本压低电价，同时使能源行业收入剧减。
我的感想是，任何我们认为“好”的东西，并不会一厢情愿地受到所有人地欢迎，也不是说就能毫无障碍地融入现有环境并发展壮大。即使是对所有人都“好”，是绝对地发展方向，也需要我们仔细设计以何种方式逐步成长。
作为一个马齿徒增而不成熟的人，我的思维通常十分简单，一个东西“好”，那就可以大干快上，有什么问题吗？但是通过这几天学习的这篇文章，让我认识到这种单线思维的重大缺陷。我们是需要思考推广“好”东西会碰到什么阻碍以及如何解决。
文章对于绿色能源困局的解决方法也进行了讨论。首先，新技术是可以帮助绿色能源更好地适应现有电网，例如通过电池存储，调度用电时间从而削峰填谷。小的模块化发电组也可以带来更高的灵活性。（超）高压输电则可以让不同区域的电力进行互补。而最重要的改进则在于对现有电力市场的升级。电价应该更及时地反映绿色能源发电的“颠簸“，电力紧缺的时候就提高用电电价和发电电价，我认为就是既然消费者享受了绿色能源的低价，那么在其不能发电时你要靠其他的电力来源就多付费呗。你不愿意就自己用电池做好存储。其次是对于不间断供电服务的”保险化”，如果消费者需要电网为自己的太阳能板做备份，那就体现在他的电力账单上。
对于这样的解决建议，我认为首先应该确保消费者的电费下降，不然他们不会有动机拥抱绿色能源，毕竟用传统的电网可是能保证随时供电的。那么政府就要设计好用户迁移的路径。就像文章最后说的，决策者需要认识到现在的问题不是出在绿色能源上，而是电价机制太落后了。