可再生能源成全球发电装机容量最大来源

About 500,000 solar panels were installed daily last year as a record-shattering surge in green energy saw renewables overtake coal as the world’s biggest source of power capacity.

去年，全球每天安装约50万块太阳能电池板——本轮创纪录的绿色能源热潮使可再生能源超越煤炭，成为全球发电装机容量最大来源。

Two wind turbines went up every hour in countries such as China, according to International Energy Agency officials who have sharply upgraded their forecasts of how fast renewable energy sources will grow.

已大幅上调可再生能源增速预测的国际能源署(IEA)官员表示，在中国等国，每小时就有两台风力发电机安装到位。

“We are witnessing a transformation of global power markets led by renewables,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the global energy advisory agency.

这家全球能源顾问机构的执行主任法提赫.比罗尔(Fatih Birol)说：“我们正在见证一场由可再生能源引领的全球电力市场变革。”

Part of the growth was caused by falls in the cost of solar and onshore wind power that Mr Birol said would have been “unthinkable” only five years ago.

当前增长的部分原因是太阳能和陆上风力发电成本下降，比罗尔称，这在短短五年前还是“难以想象的”。

Although coal and other fossil fuels remain the largest source of electricity generation, many conventional power utilities and energy groups have been confounded by the speed at which renewables have grown and the rapid drop in costs for the technologies.

虽然煤炭及其他化石燃料仍贡献最大的发电量，但许多传统供电企业和能源集团对可再生能源的增长速度及其成本的快速下降感到措手不及。

Average global generation costs for new onshore wind farms fell by an estimated 30 per cent between 2010 and 2015 while those for big solar panel plants fell by an even steeper two-thirds, an IEA report published yesterday showed.

国际能源署昨日发布的一份报告显示，2010至2015年间，新建陆上风电场的全球平均发电成本下降了约30%，而大型太阳能发电场的成本降幅甚至更大，达到三分之二。

The Paris-based agency thinks costs are likely to fall further over the next five years, by 15 per cent on average for wind and by a quarter for solar power.

总部位于巴黎的该机构认为，未来五年，可再生能源的发电成本很可能进一步下降：风力发电平均下降15%，太阳能发电下降25%。

It said an unprecedented 153 gigawatts of green electricity was installed last year, mostly wind and solar projects — more than Canada’s total capacity.

该机构称，去年绿色电力新增装机容量（主要是风能和太阳能项目）达到了空前的1530亿瓦特，比加拿大的总装机容量还高。

It was also more than the amount of conventional fossil fuel or nuclear power added in 2015, leading renewables to surpass coal’s cumulative share of global power capacity — though not electricity generation.

该数字还超过了2015年化石燃料或核能的新增装机容量，使可再生能源超过了煤炭在全球装机容量（尽管不是发电量）中的累计占比。

A power plant’s capacity is the maximum amount of electricity it can potentially produce. The amount of energy a plant actually generates varies according to how long it produces power over a period of time. Because a wind or solar farm cannot generate constantly like coal, it will produce less energy over the course of a year even though it may have the same or higher level of capacity.

电厂的装机容量是其能够产出的最大数量的电能。电厂的实际发电量根据其在一段时间内发电时间长短而变化。由于风力或太阳能发电场无法像煤炭那样不间断地产生电力，因此，虽然它们可能拥有与煤炭相同或更高的装机容量，但在一年内的发电量还是少于煤炭。

Coal plants supplied close to 39 per cent of the world’s power in 2015, while renewables, including older hydropower dams, accounted for 23 per cent.

2015年，燃煤电厂提供了全球近39%的电力，而可再生能源（包括历史较久的水电）占23%。

But the IEA expects renewables’ share to rise to 28 per cent by 2021, when it predicts they will supply the equivalent of all the electricity generated now in the US and EU combined.

但国际能源署预计，到2021年，可再生能源的占比将上升至28%，届时将提供相当于现在美国和欧盟总发电量的电力。

It revised five-year forecasts to show renewables’ capacity growing 13 per cent more than estimates made just last year, mostly due to strong policy backing in the US, China, India and Mexico.

该机构修正了其五年期预测——可再生能源装机容量增长比去年的估算高出13%，这主要归功于美国、中国、印度以及墨西哥强有力的政策支持。