The 'duck curve' is solar energy's greatest challenge

When you flip a light switch, you expect it to work, right?
當你按電燈開關時會預期它是可以使用的，對吧?

All of your appliances work, because your power company has electricity ready to transmit for a lot of customers. 
你所有的家用電器都能正常運作是因為你的電力公司早已準備好為許多消費者傳遞電力

And utility companies have gotten really good at anticipating that demand. 
加上公共事業公司幾年下來變得很會預測需求量

If the grid managers are doing their job, you should never notice any of this.
如果電力網管理者有做好他們份內工作的話，你完全不會注意到這些

But a rise in solar energy production is making their jobs a bit more complex.
但上升的太陽能產量複雜化他們的工作

Here's a chart that explains why. 
這裡有個圖表解釋原因

It's showing demand for electricity at any given time of day.
這裡顯示了當天任何時段的電力需求量

The power companies supply the least amount of power overnight, then it ramps up in the
morning.
電力公司在隔夜的時候提供最少電量然後在接近早晨時逐漸上升

Everyone's woken up and business gets going, then at sunset energy demand peaks .
每個人都起床了、產業開始運轉然後能源需求在黃昏達到高峰

Utility companies will update models like this to operate as efficiently as possible.
公共事業公司會將樣式更新成這樣以便有效率地運作

But the introduction of renewable energy particularly solar energy has started causing problems in these demand curves.
但再生能源的引進尤其是太陽能卻開始影響需求曲線

In 2010 solar panel deployment really started taking off. 
在2010年太陽能板效用真正開始起飛

Most of those installations took place in California.
許多設施都安置在加州

So researchers there started looking into it.
所以那邊的研究員開始調查

They found that the Sun produces the most energy at midday.
他們發現太陽在正中午的時候產生最多能量

And when you factor in that new midday production, your demand curve changes like this.
而當你將其列入新的正午產量，你的需求曲線會像這樣改變

Every year means new solar capacity which makes midday demand dip lower and lower.
每一年代表新的太陽能量所以導致正午需求一再下降

Researchers call this drop in demand “the duck curve.”
研究員將這個下降的需求量稱為 "鴨子曲線"

From the grid managers perspective, the people whose job it is to constantly balance generation and demand, it looks like a drop in demand.
對那些電力網管理者就是需要時常負責維持能量與需求的人來說，這看起像是需求下降

That drop in demand creates two problems.
這樣的需求下降引發兩個問題

The first has to do with the intense ramps in the new chart.
第一點攸關新圖表上的劇烈上升

As the Sun sets, solar energy production ends, just as the demand for energy typically peaks.
當太陽下山時，太陽能產量在平時能源需求的巔峰期停止供應

Power plants then have to rapidly ramp up production to compensate for that, which is kinda hard to do with the current fleet of power infrastructure.
為了彌補這個情況，發電廠就必須趕緊提高產量但是很難以目前艦隊的電力基礎設施來做到

The second problem is economic. 
第二個問題是經濟

Say you have a couple of nuclear and coal plants, those plants are only economic when they
are running all the time basically.
假設你有些許核能電廠跟燃煤發電廠，基本上它們需要時時刻刻地運作以達到經濟效益

They run around the clock
全天24小時不歇息

And if you have to turn them off at midday, it completely screws up their economics and plus lots of utilities just have contracts with those power plants to keep them running all the time.
所以如果你在正中午的時候關掉它們就會徹底地摧毀經濟情況，加上許多公用事業都有與那些電廠簽約以維持它們24小時的運作

So that creates sort of an artificial floor. 
所以這就產生了某種人造底處

If solar generates too much power and there's no use for it there's no one to consume it, then the grid managers just have to turn some solar panels off.
如果太陽產生太多能源又沒有人使用時將會迫使電力網管理者關閉些許太陽能電板

If they didn't, we could risk overloading or even damaging the power grid.
如果他們不這麼做的話將會面臨過載或是毀壞輸電網的風險

So we throw away some of that extra solar energy.
所以我們丟棄那些多餘的太陽能

Effectively what's happening is that solar power is being wasted.
實際上，太陽能量正在被揮霍

That waste, curtailment, is the big challenge moving forward for solar energy. 
浪費、縮減正是我們邁向太陽能之路的一大挑戰

If you want solar, eventually to power everything or close to everything, you've got to figure
out some way of shifting some of it to the nighttime because the sun's down during the night time.
如果你想要將所有事物太陽能化就必須想出將太陽能轉移到夜晚的方法因為晚上沒有陽光

The more power can be stored, the more you can sort of let solar rip.
你存取越多的能量就可以肆意地獲得太陽

While the grid managers figure out how to serve this new supply and demand, this duck is the greatest challenge facing renewable energy.
在電力網管理者理出該如何提供新的供需量前，這隻鴨子將會是再生能源所面臨的最嚴峻挑戰

Thank you for watching and thanks to Principal Financial for sponsoring Vox Video.
感謝您的收看也感謝信安金融贊助Vox影片

Whether it's securing investment, retirement, or protecting your insurance assets, they can help you prepare for the unexpected.
不管是投資安全、退休或是防護你的保險資產，他們都可以幫助你面對任何意想不到的情況

 

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