Siting solar panels over rooftops, parking lots, reservoirs and contaminated land could generate heaps of energy—with minimal effects on agriculture or the environment. Christopher Intagliata reports.

在屋顶、停车场、水库和被污染的土地上安装太阳能电池板可以在产生大量能源的同时，对农业或环境产生最小的影响。克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔报道。

撰文播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）

翻译：邱燕宁

审校：郭晓

Solar companies are obviously in the business of building solar energy farms. But here's another way the solar developers are spending their money: to protect and relocate desert tortoises from their sunny desert solar farms—to the tune of at least 60 million dollars.

太阳能公司的工作显然是建造太阳能农场。但太阳能开发商正在投资另一项工程：保护沙漠陆龟，并将它们从阳光充足的沙漠太阳能农场迁出，这需要花费至少6000万美元。

"It's an incredible amount of money to do something that is not necessary." Not necessary to the generation of solar energy, that is, says Rebecca Hernandez. Because why not just put your panels elsewhere?

“这是在花一笔难以置信的巨额资金做一些不必要的事情。”Rebecca Hernandez表示，上述行为对产生太阳能并不必要。因为，为什么不把太阳能板放置到其他地方呢?

Hernandez, an earth system scientist and ecologist at U.C. Davis, says the alternatives to developing on wild lands are many: put photovoltaic panels over rooftops or parking lots; atop salty or contaminated land, unsuitable for farming; or why not install floatovoltaics? "A floatovoltaic is a photovoltaic installation that is placed on pontoons that float on the water."

Hernandez是加州大学戴维斯分校的地球系统科学家和生态学家。她表示，开发利用荒地的替代方案有很多：把光伏板放在屋顶或停车场上；放在不适合耕种的盐碱地或者受污染的土地上；或者为什么不安装漂浮的太阳能系统呢？“漂浮的太阳能系统是一种放置在浮桥上的光伏装置，而浮桥浮于水面上。”

She and her colleagues identified one and a half million football fields' worth of surface area on those types of alternative sites in California's Central Valley alone. With a combined energy generation potential of 4,300 terawatt-hours per year using the solar panels available on the market today, that's enough to power the entire United States.*

仅在加州中央谷（California's Central Valley）的那些可选地中，她和她的同事们就发现了相当于150万个足球场那么大的可使用面积。利用目前市场上使用的太阳能电池板，（这块场地）每年发电潜力为4300太瓦时（4.3×1012kW·h），这足以为整个美国供电。

"This paper isn't to say that we think that all energy should be derived from solar energy. Obviously a diverse portfolio of energy sources helps to provide resilience to our energy systems. But really our study demonstrates that we have a lot of untapped potential out there."

“这篇论文并不是说我们认为所有的能量都应该来自太阳能。显然，多样化的能源组合有助于为我们的能源系统提供弹性。但我们的研究表明，在开发能源系统上，我们有很多潜力。”

The report is in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. [Madison K. Hoffacker, Michael F. Allen and Rebecca R. Hernandez, Land-Sparing Opportunities for Solar Energy Development in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study of the Great Central Valley, CA, United States]

该研究结果发表在《环境科学与技术》（Environmental Science and Technology）杂志上。

Cases exist where it might be too expensive or too technically complicated to develop on these alternative sites. But if developers take a cue from Hernandez, perhaps the future of solar will be truly sustainable.

有些备选站点上的太阳能开发可能过于昂贵或者技术上过于复杂。但如果开发商能从Hernandez那里得到启示，或许未来的太阳能将是真正可持续发展的。