Biodegradable mems. Vocabbox. A lot of machines made by physicists are used in medicine now, страница 11

1.What could a new type of regenerative fuel cell do?

2.How do the most fuel cells generate electricity?

3.  Where is work on this kind of fuel cell being carried out?

4.  What will Innogy’s Regenesys system let small-scale generations use? Why?

5.  What does Regenesys use? Why?

6.  There are no discharges into the local environment, are there?

Make up your own vocabulary on this text. Use each of them in the sentences of your own.

Discuss the future possible trends in storing electricity.

UNIT 12

PHYSICISTS  MUST  LEAD  ON  ENERGY

Vocabbox

noun collocations

§  dwindling reserves of fossil fuel

§  enormous scope for new ideas

§  renewable- energy technologies

§  unfavourable press for nuclear energy

§  the entire physics community

§  by deuterium obtained from sea water

§  a stronger lobbying effort

§  as an energy-storage medium

§  with embedded generation

§  a climate-change levy

verb collocations

§  be at the forefront of debate on

§  be strongly presented

§  invest heavily in

§  reduce our dependence on

§  need to be supported

§  be divorced from

Pre-reading task

Look at the title of the article and answer the following question: Why must physicists lead on energy?

Reading

Read the article and compare your point of view with the author’s.

Your millennium issue discusses 10 of the biggest, unsolved problems in physics (December 1999 pp21-24 and pp53-58). I believe that one of the most vital set of problems facing physicists and mankind itself is what to do about pollution, the dwindling reserves of fossil fuel, and a rapidly changing global climate. The environment is one issue that gives enormous scope for new ideas, for widening the physics-based energy-technology possibilities, and for influencing governments to take wise decisions in energy policy that will lead to greater climate stability It is physicists who know about these issues and it is physicists who should be at the forefront of debate on energy use and climate change.

Continuing concern for the climate was expressed at the Kyoto summit in 1997, which led to agreements to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. Physicists should certainly support government initiatives to develop renewable-energy technologies such as wind power, wave power, solar energy and hydroelectricity, but it should be clearly pointed out that government targets for reducing carbon dioxide can only be met through a growing programme of nuclear power. Renewable energy on its own will not meet these targets. The environmental case for the role of nuclear plants in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide should be strongly presented, in spite of the unfavourable press for nuclear energy. France is the perfect example of a country that has invested heavily in nuclear plants and as a result has seen its pollution levels fall dramatically.

Research into nuclear fusion also needs the support of the entire physics community. The recent withdrawal of the US from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is regrettable. Emitting little or no radioactivity and requiring no fossil fuels, this essential energy technology of the future should really be classified as a renewable-energy source, because fusion reactors will be fuelled by deuterium obtained from sea water. Physicists should lead a stronger lobbying effort for both of these nuclear technologies.

There are also many other types of renewable energy that could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. These include photovoltaics, fuel cells, and the use of hydrogen as an energy-storage medium – whether in compressed or liquid form, or in solid carbon or metal structures. If renewable energy is to play a major role, then energy-storage technology will play a vital part in this development. Batteries, flywheels and superconducting magnets are among the other energy-storage methods that need to be supported.