VOA慢速英语听力：越来越多的公司寻求回收太阳能电池板 More Companies Seek to Recycle Solar Panels

VOA慢速英语听力：越来越多的公司寻求回收太阳能电池板 More Companies Seek to Recycle Solar Panels.

Many plans designed to deal with climate change depend on the use of clean energy from the sun, or solar power. But the equipment necessary for solar power sometimes gets damaged or wears out. These solar panels often end up as waste in landfills.

许多旨在应对气候变化的计划依赖于来自太阳的清洁能源，即太阳能。但是用于太阳能的设备有时会损坏或磨损。这些太阳能电池板往往最终成为垃圾堆填区的废物。

A business based in Yuma, Arizona, is trying to deal with what its founders call a tsunami of solar waste. The company is called We Recycle Solar.

总部位于亚利桑那州尤马的一家企业正在努力应对其创始人所称的太阳能废物海啸。该公司名为We Recycle Solar。

Large amounts of waste

大量的废物

Workers move large numbers of solar panels with special machines, then lift each out by hand to begin separating by maker and model. Some panels only have a few cracks in their glass.

工人们用特殊的机器移动大量的太阳能电池板，然后用手将它们抬出来，开始按制造商和型号进行分拣。有些电池板的玻璃只有几个裂缝。

These panels can be reused, said company chief Adam Saghei.

该公司负责人亚当·萨格海表示，这些电池板可以再利用。

The panels that do not go to testing and resale instead go to a special area where glass, metals, and other materials with value are separated.

那些没有进行测试和转售的电池板则被送往一个特殊的区域，其中玻璃、金属和其他有价值的材料会被分离。

Solar panels are built to survive many years of bad weather, so it is difficult to take them apart.

太阳能电池板设计成可以经受多年的恶劣天气，因此拆解它们是困难的。

Separating the glass without it breaking, for example, is difficult. But We Recycle Solar uses special robotic devices that can do the work successfully.

例如，在不让玻璃破碎的情况下进行分离是很困难的。但是We Recycle Solar使用了特殊的机器人设备，可以成功完成这项工作。

Some of the highest value materials in solar panels are copper, silver, aluminum, glass, and crystalline silicon.

太阳能电池板中一些最有价值的材料包括铜、银、铝、玻璃和晶体硅。

For Saghei, the idea for the company came in 2017. He was working in the computer electronic waste sector. He saw solar panels spread across roofs and wondered where the panels would go in the future. He said he realized that green technology does not stay green once it is no longer being used.

对于萨格海来说，创办这家公司的想法是在2017年产生的。他当时在电脑电子废物行业工作。他看到太阳能电池板铺设在房顶上，想知道这些电池板将来会去哪里。他说，他意识到绿色技术一旦不再使用，就不再是绿色的了。

Copper is one metal the recycling process produces, said Dwight Clark, director of recycling technology at We Recycle Solar. Clark said there is not a lot of copper in each solar panel. But when the company recycles around 4500 kilograms of solar panels in an hour, the company can get over a hundred kilograms of copper.

We Recycle Solar的回收技术主任德怀特·克拉克表示，回收过程会产生铜。克拉克说，每个太阳能电池板中的铜不多。但是，当该公司在一个小时内回收约4500公斤的太阳能电池板时，该公司可以获得超过一百公斤的铜。

The future

未来

By 2050, solar panel waste will total some 78 million tons worldwide, said Mool Gupta of the University of Virginia. The reason recycling and recovery is not very strong yet, Gupta said, is that companies do not want to pay the $30 per panel cost when it costs only $1 to send it to a landfill.

弗吉尼亚大学的穆尔·古普塔表示，到2050年，全球太阳能电池板废物将总计约7800万吨。古普塔表示，回收和再利用的力度还不强，原因是企业不愿意支付每块电池板30美元的成本，而只需花费1美元就可以将其送往垃圾填埋场。

Garvin Heath is a renewable energy expert at the U.S. Department of Energy. He said the cost to recycle should not be more than the cost to put solar panels in landfills. He said consumers should not have to pay anything and recycling businesses should not suffer financial losses.

加尔文·希思是美国能源部的可再生能源专家。他表示，回收的成本不应超过将太阳能电池板送往垃圾填埋场的成本。他说，消费者不应该支付任何费用，回收企业也不应遭受经济损失。

Other companies are starting to get into the business.

其他公司开始涉足这一行业。

Solarcycle, a new company based in Odessa, Texas, raised $30 million earlier this year. And Solarpanelrecycling.com is connected to electronics recycler PowerHouse Recycling.

Solarcycle是一家总部位于德克萨斯州奥德

萨的新公司，今年早些时候获得了3000万美元的融资。而Solarpanelrecycling.com则与电子废物回收公司PowerHouse Recycling有关联。

The European Union has rules that require recycling of electronic waste under its Waste Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive (WEEE).

欧盟有规定要求在废弃电子电器设备指令（WEEE）下对电子废物进行回收。

Market researcher Visiongain estimates the global market for solar panel recycling at $138 million for last year and growing fast.

市场研究机构Visiongain估计，去年全球太阳能电池板回收市场价值1.38亿美元，并且正快速增长。

Jack Groppo of the University of Kentucky says people have to stop sending solar panels to the landfill as soon as possible. “Once the solar panels go into the landfill, they’re gone unless we go back and mine the landfill,” he said.

肯塔基大学的杰克·格罗波表示，人们必须尽快停止将太阳能电池板送往垃圾填埋场。“一旦太阳能电池板进入垃圾填埋场，除非我们重新开采填埋场，否则它们就会消失，”他说。

Groppo estimates that in 20 years people will mine landfills to get valuable materials in the solar panels. But he said it makes more sense to separate the panels at their retirement instead.

格罗波估计，在20年内，人们将会开采填埋场以获取太阳能电池板中的有价值材料。但他表示，最好的做法是在太阳能电池板退役时对它们进行拆解。

The Yuma facility can process 7,500 panels in a single day. As of early June, it estimates more than 650,000 tons of carbon dioxide waste production have been avoided. It is reusing about 60 percent of the panels that come in.

尤马工厂每天可以处理7,500块太阳能电池板。截至6月初，该工厂估计已经避免了超过650,000吨的二氧化碳废物产生。它正在重新使用约60％的电池板。

The company plans to open another recycling center next to a large solar manufacturer in the southeastern part of the country.

该公司计划在该国东南部地区的一家大型太阳能制造商附近开设另一个回收中心。

For now, solar recycling companies are still looking for a way to make money. But Gupta said these profitability issues are temporary. Researchers are hard at work on solving them, he said.

目前，太阳能回收公司仍在寻找盈利的方法。但是古普塔表示，这些盈利问题是暂时的。研究人员正在努力解决这些问题，他说。

He added, “Too many lives are lost to pollution and solar is one of the top solutions.”

他补充说：“太多的生命因污染而丧生，太阳能是其中之一的最佳解决方案。”

I’m John Russell.

我是约翰·拉塞尔。

Words in This Story

panel – n. a flat piece of equipment that uses the sun's light or heat to create electricity

recycle – v. to make something new from (something that has been used before)

landfill – n. a system in which waste materials are buried under the ground