A glimmer of light

湮灭之光

How to solve South Africa’s energy crisis

如何解决南非的能源危机

President Cyril Ramaphosa must face down unions to embrace clean power

总统西里尔·拉马福萨必须面对工会，接受清洁能源

Apr 17th 2019 | UPINGTON

IN THE CONTROL room of Scatec Solar in Cape Town Johan Badenhorst gazes at the six monitors on the wall. The screens display the status of the firm’s 16 plants in 11 countries. The three in South Africa are doing nicely, producing enough energy to power 93,000 homes. Problems are rare, says Mr Badenhorst, Scatec’s senior control officer, before correcting himself: once a bird dropped a tortoise on a solar panel, smashing the glass.

在开普敦的斯卡特太阳能公司的控制室里，约翰·巴登霍斯特盯着墙上的六个监视器。屏幕显示了该公司在11个国家的16家工厂的状况。南非的这三家公司都运行的很好，生产的能源足以为9.3万户家庭提供电力。斯卡代克公司（Scatec）的高级控制官员巴登霍斯特（Badenhorst）先生说，公司很少有问题发生:有一次一只鸟把一只乌龟掉在太阳能电池板上，打碎了玻璃，至少他在在纠正自己的话之前是这样说的。

词汇

Panel/仪表板；嵌板；

Such issues, while upsetting for tortoises, are minor compared with those faced by Eskom, the state-owned utility that supplies 95% of South Africa’s electricity. At least one-third of its power stations are broken or shut for maintenance. Over recent months the talk of the country has been of “load-shedding”: a euphemism for blackouts because Eskom cannot meet demand. March was the worst-ever month for load-shedding, when Eskom regularly took 4,000-megawatts (MW) off the grid, about one-eleventh of its total capacity (45,561MW), or enough to power 3m homes.

这些问题（鸟叼走乌龟）虽然让乌龟们感到不安，但与南非电力公司埃斯科姆公司（Eskom）所面临的问题相比，这些问题微不足道。埃斯科姆公司是一家国有公用事业公司，为南非提供95%的电力。至少有三分之一的电站因维护而损坏或关闭。近几个月来，该国一直围绕 “限制用电”谈论；这是由于埃斯科姆公司无法满足需求而导致停电的委婉说法。3月是有史以来最糟糕的一个月，埃斯科姆公司定期切断4000兆瓦(MW)的电力供应，约占其总容量(45561 MW)的十一分之一，或者说是足以为300万户家庭供电的电量。

词汇

load-shedding/用电限制；电力平均分配

euphemism/委婉语；委婉说法

blackouts/黑朦；灯火管制；停电

Further failures could have severe consequences. “Eskom is the greatest systemic risk to the South African economy,” says Colin Coleman, the boss for sub-Saharan Africa of Goldman Sachs, a bank. Goldman reckons power cuts could reduce GDP growth by 0.9 percentage points, about half the rate of official growth forecasts.

进一步的供电不足可能会带来严重的后果。“埃斯科姆公司对南非经济来说是最大的系统风险因素，”位于撒哈拉以南非洲地区的高盛财团老板科林•科尔曼说。高盛估计，停电可能使GDP增长下降0.9个百分点，约为官方增长预测的一半。

Eskom also threatens South Africa’s public finances. Since 2007 Eskom’s debt has risen from 40bn to 420bn rand ($30bn). It is effectively insolvent, borrowing to pay interest on its debts. In February the Treasury announced a 69bn rand bail-out. It will not be the last. “There is a real risk of financial meltdown,” says Anton Eberhard, who advises President Cyril Ramaphosa on energy. The president, who took over from Jacob Zuma last year, is standing in elections on May 8th. People may not take kindly to voting in darkness.

埃斯科姆公司还威胁到南非的公共财政。自2007年以来，埃斯科姆公司的债务已从400亿兰特(合300亿美元)升至4200亿兰特。它实际上已经资不抵债，只能通过借款来支付债务利息。今年2月，财政部宣布了一项690亿兰特的纾困计划。这不会是最后一次。西里尔•拉马福萨(Cyril Ramaphosa)总统的能源顾问安东•埃伯哈德(Anton Eberhard)表示:“确实存在金融崩溃的风险。”总统，去年从雅各布·祖玛手中接过总统一职，正在参加5月8日的选举。人们可能不喜欢在黑暗中投票。

词汇

Rand/  兰特（南非的货币单位）

Insolvent/破产的；无力偿还的

bail-out/应急措施；纾困

meltdown/灾难；彻底垮台

Eskom’s predicament has deep roots. Between the 1960s and 1990s the apartheid government built big and dirty power stations hoping cheap electricity would spark industrialisation. After white rule ended in 1994 the African National Congress (ANC) had Eskom provide power to the more than two-thirds of black households that lacked electricity, one of the fastest electrification projects in history.

埃斯科姆公司的困境有着深刻的根源。20世纪60年代至90年代，种族隔离政府建造了又大又脏的发电站，希望廉价的电力能刺激工业化。1994年白人统治结束后，非洲人国民大会(ANC)让埃斯科姆公司为超过三分之二的缺电黑人家庭提供电力，这是历史上最快的电气化项目之一。

词汇

Predicament/窘况，困境；状态

Apartheid/种族隔离