时间:2019-02-12 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2009年(九月)


英语课

Work begins this month on a new, environmentally-friendly power plant in Liberia that will use old rubber trees to generate electricity. It is part of a plan to make Liberia the world's first sustainable biomass-driven economy.


Natural rubber has anchored the Liberian economy for more than 75 years. The huge Firestone plantation 1 east of the capital, Monrovia, remains 2 the world's largest single natural rubber operation and was one of the first businesses to reopen after Liberia's long civil war.


Its continued success is crucial to Liberia's economic recovery. Now, the plantation's eight million rubber trees may help fuel that recovery by producing low-cost electricity.


The firm Buchanan Renewable Energies is building a carbon-neutral power plant using woodchips from older rubber trees to generate 35 megawatts of electricity.
 
An electrician works on a lamp-post in Monrovia the capital city of Liberia (File)


The Liberian Electric Company will then sell that power to people in Monrovia for about half what they are paying now.


Buchanan Renewables President Joel Strickland says it is a low-cost, intermediate solution to Liberia's energy needs, while repairs to the Mt. Coffee hydroelectric facility are at least five years away.


Workers break ground on the new power plant this month. Strickland says it will have the capacity to double the initial 35 megawatts of electricity, once the nation's power grid 3 is improved.


"The rubber chips are available. The biomass is here. The difficulty is the distribution is not there," said Strickland. "So LEC, once they receive the power have to be able to deliver it to the consumer. So all the wires stringing the distribution needs to be done on a more rapid basis and faster so we can get out to the consumer."


Using non-performing rubber trees as a source of power also helps rejuvenate 4 rubber production by making room for new planting. If properly managed, clearing and replanting trees in a 30-year cycle creates both a renewable source of energy and maximum rubber production.


Liberia is also gaining from the export of woodchips to Europe, where they are used as either biomass for energy production or in the manufacture of fiber 5 board.


Strickland says Liberia has shipped 30,000 tons of woodchips this year and will export another 30,000 tons before the end of the year. He expects to top that in 2010 with more than 200,000 tons of woodchip exports.


National Investment Commission Chairman Richard Tolbert says Buchanan Renewable's $150-million investment demonstrates the strength of both Liberia's commitment to renewable energy and its investment climate.


"So despite all of what is going on in the world - the global financial crisis - instead of investors 6 pulling back, investors are continuing to come to us here in Liberia," said Tolbert. "That is very tangible 7 proof that we are doing the right thing."


Strickland says the project will create more than 400 new jobs by the end of the year.


"As we expand, we will be creating jobs in Margibi. We will be creating jobs in Bong County where we are starting to operate, certainly Montserado with the power plant and the distribution," added Strickland. "So our goal really as we go about is to have close relations with both the political authorities as well as civil society because that is where we are drawing our employees from."


Beyond the hiring of its own employees, Buchanan Renewable's generation of lower-cost electricity should lead to further job growth as small businesses will spend less on utilities.


Tolbert says employment is the key in a nation still recovering from conflict where the United Nations estimates formal sector 8 unemployment at 80 percent.


"Business is coming. Investment is coming. And what does this mean? This means jobs, my friend. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. That is the key to the economic and security, long-term stability of this country," said Tolbert. "That is all we are about, as far as I am concerned. Jobs even over revenue. We are trying to create jobs so everybody can make their own living as opposed to depending on the government for a hand-out."


The Buchanan Renewable investment has already improved roads, bridges, and ports in Liberia. It says a portion of profits from the project will be given as grants to social program.


The company says its goal is to generate electricity from natural, non-edible, renewable and sustainable resources indigenous 9 to West Africa with projects that focus on reducing the emission 10 of greenhouse gases.



n.种植园,大农场
  • His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
  • The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
n.高压输电线路网;地图坐标方格;格栅
  • In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下,要用载体把格栅密封起来。
  • Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。
v.(使)返老还童;(使)恢复活力
  • The mountain air will rejuvenate you.山里的空气会使你恢复活力。
  • Exercise is perhaps the most effective way to rejuvenate your skin.锻炼可能是使皮肤恢复活力的最好手段。
n.纤维,纤维质
  • The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
  • The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的
  • The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
  • There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形
  • The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
  • The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
adj.土产的,土生土长的,本地的
  • Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
  • Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。
n.发出物,散发物;发出,散发
  • Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施,降低污染物排放总量。
  • Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后,指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。
学英语单词
a. perinealis
accrued charge
acoustic magnetic mine
adlecting
administration of internal affairs
Aflogualnum
ai chi
alternative procedure
ampholite
art and part
artificial caving
assidue
base of petroleum
black cottonwood
blue-green bacterium
bursting speed
cascading down
centricdiatom
cloud-bases
complementary scale
consistorial
conventional-arms
counter-cast
Crista sacralis intermedia
Cynwyl Elfed
Daphne holosericea
departmental arrangement and distribution in commodity stock
Direct Copper Blue 2R
disinflations
drip channel
event oriented simulation
eye-serve
factorization method
facular
Fentathienil
flower
geomagnetic periodic variation
go yachting.
group demodulator filter
harpending
hepatitis sequestrans
information management program
initial overburden pressure
insulation varnish
intrapore
inverse beta process
journal box lid hinge
lanatest
light pressure separator
Lothair
megalodiscs
merry-go-round
monoethanolamine(surfactant)
moving current-weighted Passche indexes
neutralizing water tank
new staff
Nihon-maru
non-specified-time relay
nuclear quadrupole spectrum
oil pressure switch
one-cancels-the-other order
orbit maneuver engine
output transfer function
Pare's suture
plain shank
plant hole
poikilosmotic character
preregeneration
progressive wave
pushback
put somebody up to
RCITR
reducing capacity
reductive alkylation
regional index call warrant
RFRNA
Rhodiola wallichiana
Richardson's ground squirrel
rosette phyllotaxy
semi-tractor
sexlessnesses
sgd.
shell tuck
sickling diathesis
simple deterministic language
spaces out
spantik
spread back
sugarcane top
system of gravitational unit
tea-tree
telephone bills
tiled mode
use test
vendibler
vertical decomposition
voltage and frequency response
wear plate
Y ligament
Yang Shiying
zori