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  3. One big plus of the House bill is the incentives it contains for a little-known technology called cogeneration. This is a method

One big plus of the House bill is the incentives it contains for a little-known technology called cogeneration. This is a method

admin2015-09-30  53
问题     One big plus of the House bill is the incentives it contains for a little-known technology called cogeneration. This is a method of using waste heat to generate power, and it has enormous potential.
    Power plants, factories and refineries vent steam and hot gases through smokestacks. All that wasted heat is wasted energy. By putting a recovery device in the stack and using the steam to drive a turbine, one can generate electricity to send back into the factory or to the power grid. A 2005 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study of 16 major industries found enough waste heat to generate 96,000 megawatts of power, which is nearly a fifth of nationwide electricity demand. Another method of cogeneration is to build a mini-plant, usually fueled by natural gas, to power large industrial or commercial properties; a single flame generates electricity and heats the buildings while cutting out transmission costs. Both methods dramatically reduce power consumption and thus emissions.
    Cogeneration is attracting increasing notice, but it still faces high hurdles. Utilities see the entrepreneurs who build cogeneration plants as competitors and often structure their rates to nullify savings for companies that recycle power. Further, in some states it’s illegal for anyone other than a utility to sell electricity. The House energy bill rightly improves access to the power grid for cogeneration facilities and sets up a loan fund to encourage recycled energy in public buildings, but more should be done, such as creation of an investment tax credit for cogeneration plants.
    Undoubtedly there is a limit to conservation--at some point, it will become prohibitively expensive to keep making refrigerators 5% more efficient every year—but the amount of power that could still be saved using existing technologies is staggering. Lawrence Berkeley researcher Hashem Akbari estimates the savings from a simple fix like requiring white roofs, which would reflect sunlight and therefore lower cooling costs, at more than $ 1 billion a year nationwide.
    Fighting global warming doesn’t have to derail the economy, or even slow it much. Some of the costs of the expensive fixes, such as developing renewable power, capturing carbon from coal-burning plants and refining better bio-fuels, can be offset by the savings from efficiency measures such as better insulation, tougher fuel economy standards and appliances that suck less power. The right combination of saving energy and investing in new forms will pay dividends for the world.
Which of the following is an economical measure for energy conservation?
选项 A、Investing in new forms of facilities.
B、Making more efficient refrigerators.
C、Requiring white roofs for buildings.
D、Toughening fuel economy standards.
答案C
解析 根据第四段最后一句“…estimates the savings from a simple fix like requiring white roofs…at more than $1 billion a year nationwide”，C应为答案。
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