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Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough比尔·盖茨支持的秘密能源初创公司 实现太阳能技术突破 By Matt Egan / November 19 , 2019 剪辑：BM ︱翻译：Ray︱校对：Sally A secretive startup backed by Bill Gates has achieved a solar breakthrough aimed at saving the planet.
一家由比尔盖茨（Bill Gates）支持的秘密创业公司实现了旨在拯救地球的太阳能方面的突破。Heliogen, a clean energy company that emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday, said it has discovered a way to use artificial intelligence and a field of mirrors to reflect so much sunlight that it generates extreme heat above 1,000 degrees Celsius.周二由秘密模式中脱颖而出的清洁能源公司Heliogen表示，他们发现了一种方法，利用人工智能和一大片镜子反射大量阳光，能够产生1000摄氏度以上的极高热量。Essentially, Heliogen created a solar oven — one capable of reaching temperatures that are roughly a quarter of what you'd find on the surface of the sun.从本质上说，Heliogen创造了一个太阳能烤箱——一个能够达到大约四分之一太阳表面温度的烤箱。The breakthrough means that, for the first time, concentrated solar energy can be used to create the extreme heat required to make cement, steel, glass and other industrial processes. In other words, carbon-free sunlight can replace fossil fuels in a heavy carbon-emitting corner of the economy that has been untouched by the clean energy revolution.这一突破意味着，集中式太阳能首次可以产生极高的热量，它可用于制造水泥、钢铁、玻璃等工业生产。换言之，在清洁能源革命未触及的碳排放严重的经济领域，无碳阳光能够取代化石燃料了。"We are rolling out technology that can beat the price of fossil fuels and also not make the CO2 emissions," Bill Gross, Heliogen's founder and CEO, told CNN Business. "And that's really the holy grail."Heliogen的创始人兼首席执行官比尔·格罗斯对美国有线电视新闻网商业频道表示：“我们正在推出一种技术，这种技术可以比化石燃料的价格低，也不会产生二氧化碳排放。这才是真正的上帝的赐予。”Heliogen, which is also backed by billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, believes the patented technology will be able to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industry.《洛杉矶时报》亿万富翁帕特里克·颂雄（Patrick Soon Shiong）也是Heliogen的投资人，他认为，这项专利技术将能够显著减少工业温室气体排放。Cement, for example, accounts for 7% of global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.例如，根据国际能源署的数据，水泥占全球二氧化碳排放量的7%。"Bill and the team have truly now harnessed the sun," Soon-Shiong, who also sits on the Heliogen board, told CNN Business. "The potential to humankind is enormous. ... The potential to business is unfathomable." “比尔和他的团队现在已经真正地利用了太阳，”身为Heliogen董事会成员的颂雄告诉美国有线电视新闻网商业频道“这一技术对人类的潜力是巨大的。... 商业潜力不可估量。”Unlike traditional solar power, which uses rooftop panels to capture the energy from the sun, Heliogen is improving on what's known as concentrated solar power. This technology, which uses mirrors to reflect the sun to a single point, is not new.与传统的太阳能利用屋顶板从太阳获取能量不同，Heliogen正在改进所谓的集中太阳能。这种利用镜子将太阳反射到一个点的技术并不新鲜。Concentrated solar has been used in the past to produce electricity and, in some limited fashion, to create heat for industry. It's even used in Oman to provide the power needed to drill for oil.过去，集中式太阳能被用来发电，并以某种有限的方式为工业生产提供热能。阿曼甚至用它来提供钻探石油所需的动力。The problem is that in the past concentrated solar couldn't get temperatures hot enough to make cement and steel.问题是，在过去，集中太阳能的温度不足以制造水泥和钢铁。"You've ended up with technologies that can't really deliver super-heated systems," said Olav Junttila, a partner at Greentech Capital Advisors, a clean energy investment bank that has advised concentrated solar companies in the past.绿色技术资本顾问公司是一家清洁能源投资银行，曾为集中式太阳能提供过咨询。它的合伙人奥拉夫·朱蒂拉表示：“以前的技术最终无法真正提供超热系统。”。Using artificial intelligence to solve the climate crisisThat means renewable energy has not yet disrupted industrial processes such as cement and steelmaking. And that's a problem because the world has an insatiable appetite for those materials.这意味着可再生能源尚未进入水泥和炼钢等工业的生产过程。这是一个问题，因为世界对这些材料有着永不满足的胃口。That's why the potential of Los Angeles-based Heliogen attracted investment from Gates, the Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder who recently surpassed Amazon (AMZN)CEO Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person.这就是为什么总部位于洛杉矶的Heliogen吸引了微软联合创始人盖茨的投资，盖茨最近超越亚马逊首席执行官杰夫·贝佐斯，成为全球首富。"I'm pleased to have been an early backer of Bill Gross's novel solar concentration technology," Gates said in a statement. "Its capacity to achieve the high temperatures required for these processes is a promising development in the quest to one day replace fossil fuel."盖茨在一份声明中说：“我很高兴能很早就支持比尔·格罗斯的新型太阳能集中技术。它能够达到一些工业生产过程所需的高温，这是一个有希望的发展，以期有一天能取代化石燃料。”While other concentrated solar companies attacked this temperature problem by adding steel to make the technology stiffer and sturdier, Heliogen and its team of scientists and engineers turned to artificial intelligence.当其他集中式太阳能公司通过添加钢铁来解决这个温度问题，使这项技术更加可靠时，Heliogen及其科学家和工程师团队转向了人工智能。"If you take a thousand mirrors and have them align exactly to a single point, you can achieve extremely, extremely high temperatures," Gross said, who added that Heliogen made its breakthrough on the first day it turned its plant on.格罗斯说：“如果你拿一千个镜子，让它们精确地对准一个点，你就可以达到非常，非常高的温度。”格罗斯还说，Heliogen在第一天启动发电时就取得了突破性进展。Heliogen said it is generating so much heat that its technology could eventually be used to create clean hydrogen at scale. That carbon-free hydrogen could then be turned into a fuel for trucks and airplanes.Heliogen说，它产生的热量如此之大，以至于它的技术最终可能被用于大规模制造清洁氢气。无碳氢可以被转化为卡车和飞机的燃料。"If you can make hydrogen that's green, that's a gamechanger," said Gross. "Long term, we want to be the green hydrogen company."格罗斯说：“如果你能制造出绿色的氢，这将改变游戏规则。”从长远来看，我们希望成为绿色氢气公司。”For now, Heliogen is squarely focused on solar. One problem with solar is that the sun doesn't always shine, yet industrial companies like cement makers have a constant need for heat. Heliogen said it would solve that issue by relying on storage systems that can hold the solar energy for rainy days.目前，Heliogen公司正专注于太阳能。太阳能的一个问题是太阳并不总是闪闪发光的，然而像水泥制造商这样的工业公司却一直需要热量。Heliogen公司表示，他们将依靠能够在雨天储存太阳能的存储系统来解决这个问题。In the meantime, Heliogen will require a healthy dose of capital to scale and it's working with investors on a private round of funding. Soon-Shiong signaled he plans to invest more in Heliogen. Heliogen declined to provide information on how much money it has raised so far.与此同时，Heliogen将需要一笔健康的资本来扩大规模，它正与投资者合作进行一轮私人融资。颂雄暗示他计划在Heliogen上投资更多。Heliogen拒绝提供迄今为止筹集了多少资金的信息。Heliogen's biggest challenge will be convincing industrial companies using fossil fuels to make the investment required to switch over. Gross said the company has been talking to potential customers privately and plans to soon announce its first customers.Heliogen最大的挑战将是说服使用化石燃料的工业公司进行转换所需的投资。格罗斯说，他们一直在与潜在客户私下沟通，并计划很快宣布首批客户。Its biggest selling point is the fact that, unlike fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, sunlight is free. And Heliogen argues its technology is already economical against fossil fuels because of its reliance on AI.它最大的卖点在于，与煤炭、石油和天然气等化石燃料不同，阳光是免费的。而Heliogen认为，由于其对人工智能的利用，它的技术相对于化石燃料已经是很省钱了。"The only way to compete is to be extremely clever in how you use your materials. And by using software, we're able to do that," Gross said.“竞争的唯一方法就是如何非常聪明地使用你掌握的材料。而通过使用软件，我们可以做到这一点，”格罗斯说。
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