陽光背面的生意 Honeysuckle blooms help China solar industry flourish
As she plucks the weeds ensnaring a nascent crop of honeysuckle, farmer Yang Xinfeng makes an unlikely pioneer in the global renewable energy revolution.
正在爲金銀花幼株除草的農民楊新鳳（音譯），出人意料地成了全球可再生能源革命的先鋒。
This year China will overtake Germany to become the world’s biggest installer of solar panels but as companies increasingly struggle to secure the vast land banks they need for solar farms, they are turning to an innovative solution: growing everything from plants to hairy crabs underneath the solar cells.
今年，中國將超過德國，成爲全球太陽能電池板安裝量最大的國家。然而，由於各企業越來越難以獲得修建太陽能發電廠所需的巨大土地庫存，它們正轉而採取一種創新解決方案：在太陽能電池板底下發展各種種植養殖業，包括養殖毛蟹。
This helps them to get around government restrictions on the conversion of agricultural land, win the support of local farmers and generate an extra income stream.
此舉幫他們繞開了政府對變更農業用地用途的限制，贏得了當地農民的支持，並帶來了額外的收入流。
“This makes a lot of sense as solar can be incorporated into agricultural land pretty effectively and non-invasively,” says Charles Yonts, an energy analyst at stockbroker CLSA in Hong Kong.
香港券商里昂證券(CLSA)能源分析師楊立志(Charles Yonts)表示：“這種做法非常合理，因爲它能將太陽能發電非常有效地整合進農業用地，不會侵佔農業生產的空間。”
At the Xicun power plant in Yunnan province, Hong Kong-listed CLP has teamed up with local farmers to grow honeysuckle, which is used in traditional medicine, below the solar cells that sprawl over hill after hill in this mountainous region.
在雲南省的西村發電站，香港上市公司中電集團(CLP)已經與當地農民合作，在太陽能電池板底下種植傳統中藥材金銀花。在這個多山地區，一塊塊太陽能電池板鋪滿了一個個山頭。
“It’s not easy to look after this crop because I didn’t know about it before but I’m making much more money now,” says Ms Yang, whose earnings have trebled to Rmb3,000 ($473) per month since she started working for the honeysuckle contractor brought in by CLP. “In the past I had to take on extra jobs to survive but now I’m more secure and I’m planning to buy a new sofa and refrigerator.”
楊女士表示：“過去我對這種作物不瞭解，照看它們並不容易。不過，如今我賺的錢多多了。”自從楊女士開始爲中電集團引進的金銀花承包商工作以來，她的收入已經增長兩倍，達到每月3000元人民幣（合473美元）。“過去我得再打些工纔夠生活，如今我不那麼擔心生活了。我還打算買新沙發和新電冰箱。”
As it doubles the capacity of the Xicun plant to 100MW, enough to power thousands of homes in the nearby city of Dali, CLP is also working on a similar project in another part of China where it will rear hairy crabs, an expensive delicacy, in ponds under its solar panels.
中電集團將西村發電站的裝機容量擴大了一倍，達到100兆瓦，足以爲附近大理市數千個家庭提供電力。目前，該集團還在中國另一個地方建設類似項目，在太陽能電池板下的池塘裏養殖特色水產毛蟹。
“Solar plants take up a big area and one of the hardest challenges we face is obtaining land near major population centres,” says Roger Yang, the company’s director for new energy in China. “Integrating food production helps us to convince the farmers to lease the land at a reasonable price and get local government support.”
中電集團中國區新能源高級副總裁楊明才(Roger Yang)表示：“太陽能發電站需要佔用很多土地，我們面臨的一大挑戰就在於如何獲取靠近主要人口聚集地的土地。將食物生產整合進來，能幫助我們說服那些農民以合理價格將土地租給我們，並能得到政府的支持。”
With the price of solar panels having collapsed because of massive oversupply, a growing number of Chinese companies see an opportunity to make money while also earning political brownie points by helping the government meet its ambitious renewable energy targets.
隨着太陽能電池板因供應過剩而價格暴跌，越來越多的中國企業看到了機遇——在賺錢的同時，通過幫助政府實現其宏偉的可再生能源目標獲得政治上的加分。
Market research group IHS predicts that China will add a record 17.3 gigawatts of solar panels this year, slightly less than the total installed capacity of Italy, the world’s fifth-biggest generator of power from the sun.
市場研究集團IHS預計，今年中國太陽能電池板新增裝機容量將達到創紀錄的17.3吉瓦，略低於全球第五大太陽能發電國意大利的總裝機容量。
Even after this breakneck expansion, China will only be producing 1 per cent of its power output from solar but it will be far and away the world’s biggest generator.
即使是在這樣迅猛的擴張之後，中國的太陽能發電量也僅將佔到其總髮電量的1%。不過，中國的太陽能發電量仍是全球第一，並且遠遠把其他國家甩在身後。
While China has vast expanses of available land in its western desert regions, it lacks the high-voltage transmission lines to bring electricity to its main cities and such a network would require billions of dollars and years of planning to build.
儘管中國在其西部荒漠地帶有廣闊的土地可用於發電，但中國缺乏將電力輸送至主要城市的高壓輸電線。這樣的電網不僅需要花費數十億美元，還需要多年的規劃才能建成。
A government drive to solve the problem by putting more “distributed” solar cells on the roofs of houses and factories has stalled because of the lack of a smart grid system that allows people and businesses to feed power into the grid and get paid easily.
由於缺乏能讓個人和企業較容易地向電網饋電並獲得酬勞的智能電網，政府通過在房屋和工廠頂部安裝更多“分佈式”太陽能電池的解決方案也遇到了阻礙。
In the meantime, more companies around China are launching integrated agriculture ventures, with plans to grow everything from mushrooms to animal feed in the shadow of solar cells.
與此同時，中國各地的更多企業正在推出與農業結合的光伏項目，打算在太陽能電池底下發展各種種植養殖業，包括蘑菇種植。
While CLP, which is part-owned and chaired by Hong Kong billionaire Michael Kadoorie, has long experience of building conventional and renewable energy plants around Asia, many of the other Chinese companies expanding into solar have a less impressive track record.
中電集團由香港億萬富翁米高嘉道理爵士(Sir Michael Kadoorie)持有部分股票並擔任董事長。儘管中電集團擁有多年在亞洲各地建設常規能源電站和可再生能源電站的經驗，但其他許多將業務拓展至太陽能領域的中國企業則沒有這麼亮眼的經歷。
Recent entrants include Evergrande, a property developer, China Oceanwide, a finance group, and Huiyuan, China’s largest private juice maker. Controversial solar panel maker Hanergy regularly appears at promotional forums for greenhouse-mounted solar panels.
最近進入該產業的公司包括地產開發商恆大(Evergrande)、金融集團中國泛海(China Oceanwide)、以及中國最大的民營果汁生產商匯源(Huiyuan)。爭議較大的太陽能電池板製造商漢能(Hanergy)，則時常出現在推介安裝於溫室上的太陽能電池板的論壇上。
As in most countries, solar plants in China can only turn a profit because of government subsidies but it can currently take a year or more for new plants to win the necessary approvals before they receive their first payments.
和多數國家的情況一樣，中國的太陽能發電站只有在得到政府補貼的情況下才會盈利。然而，新電站目前需要花費一年甚至一年以上的時間，才能獲得必要的批准、收到頭一筆付款。
Frank Xie, a solar analyst for IHS in Shanghai, says those with strong financial backing or international businesses can ride out the subsidy delay but some weaker companies will struggle to complete their projects, particularly given the wider slowdown.
IHS駐上海的光伏產業分析師謝鋒(Frank Xie)表示，那些資金實力雄厚、或有國際業務的企業有能力挺過補貼發放延遲期，而部分較弱的公司卻難以完成自己的項目——尤其是考慮到整體經濟放緩的背景。
Mr Yonts of CLSA says that despite the potential for financial problems in the short term, China’s huge solar investment will transform the industry globally by driving down costs, which are currently about 60 per cent higher than coal-fired power.
里昂證券的楊立志表示，儘管短期內存在出現資金問題的可能性，中國對太陽能產業巨大的投資會降低成本，從而改變全球太陽能產業的面貌。目前，太陽能發電的成本比火電高大約60%。
“That will make solar particularly attractive for countries like India and Indonesia,” which both suffer from damaging electricity shortages, he says.
他說，“這會令太陽能發電對印度和印尼這樣的國家尤其有吸引力”，這兩個國家都存在困擾經濟的電力短缺。
