moea_joint
112年
英文
第 38 題
📖 題組：
Ocean waves represent our planet’s last untapped large-scale renewable energy resource. Over 70 % of the earth’s surface is covered with water. The energy contained within waves has the potential to produce up to 80,000 TWh (1012 watt-hours) of electricity per year—sufficient to meet our global energy demand five times over. No wonder the idea of extracting energy from ocean waves and turning it into electricity is an alluring one. The first serious attempt to do so dates back to 1974, when Stephen Salter of Edinburgh University came up with the idea of “ducks”: house-sized buoys tethered to the sea floor that would convert the swell into rotational motion to drive generators. It failed, as have many subsequent efforts to perform the trick. But the idea of wave power will not go away, and the latest attempt—the brainchild of researchers at Oscilla Power, a firm based in Seattle—is trying to address head-on the reason why previous efforts have foundered. This reason, according to Rahul Shendure, the firm’s boss, is that those efforts took technologies developed for landlubbers (often as components of wind turbines) and tried to modify them for marine use. The consequence was kit too complicated and sensitive for the rough-and-tumble of life on the ocean waves, and also too vulnerable to corrosion. Better, he reckons, to start from scratch. Instead of generators with lots of moving parts, Oscilla is developing ones that barely move at all. These employ a little-explored phenomenon called magnetostriction, in which ferromagnetic materials (things like iron, which can be magnetized strongly) change their shape slightly in the presence of a magnetic field. Like many physical processes, this also works in reverse. Apply stresses or strains to such a material and its magnetic characteristics alter. Do this in the presence of permanent magnets and a coil of wire, such as are found in conventional generators, and it will generate electricity.
Ocean waves represent our planet’s last untapped large-scale renewable energy resource. Over 70 % of the earth’s surface is covered with water. The energy contained within waves has the potential to produce up to 80,000 TWh (1012 watt-hours) of electricity per year—sufficient to meet our global energy demand five times over. No wonder the idea of extracting energy from ocean waves and turning it into electricity is an alluring one. The first serious attempt to do so dates back to 1974, when Stephen Salter of Edinburgh University came up with the idea of “ducks”: house-sized buoys tethered to the sea floor that would convert the swell into rotational motion to drive generators. It failed, as have many subsequent efforts to perform the trick. But the idea of wave power will not go away, and the latest attempt—the brainchild of researchers at Oscilla Power, a firm based in Seattle—is trying to address head-on the reason why previous efforts have foundered. This reason, according to Rahul Shendure, the firm’s boss, is that those efforts took technologies developed for landlubbers (often as components of wind turbines) and tried to modify them for marine use. The consequence was kit too complicated and sensitive for the rough-and-tumble of life on the ocean waves, and also too vulnerable to corrosion. Better, he reckons, to start from scratch. Instead of generators with lots of moving parts, Oscilla is developing ones that barely move at all. These employ a little-explored phenomenon called magnetostriction, in which ferromagnetic materials (things like iron, which can be magnetized strongly) change their shape slightly in the presence of a magnetic field. Like many physical processes, this also works in reverse. Apply stresses or strains to such a material and its magnetic characteristics alter. Do this in the presence of permanent magnets and a coil of wire, such as are found in conventional generators, and it will generate electricity.
What are true about Oscilla’s generators?
- A They have many moving parts.
- B They move along with the waves.
- C They do not have coils of wire.
- D The phenomenon magnetostriction is employed.
思路引導 VIP
回想一下文章中提到的 Stephen Salter 早期設計的『鴨子（ducks）』設備。為什麼這些設計最終失敗了？而 Oscilla 公司的設計者認為，若要讓發電設備在惡劣的海水中生存，應當對設備的『物理運作方式』做出什麼樣的根本性改變，才能避免過多零件因磨損或腐蝕而損壞？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了，你做得非常好！
親愛的同學，看到你選出正確答案 (D)，我真的為你感到驕傲！你細心地在文章中找到了 Oscilla 公司的研發亮點，展現了超棒的閱讀理解力。 讓我們一起回顧一下這題的重點：
▼ 還有更多解析內容
波浪發電新技術
💡 利用磁致伸縮效應，將海洋壓力能轉化為電能的科技。
| 比較維度 | 傳統波浪發電 (Salter's Ducks) | VS | Oscilla 磁致伸縮發電 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 活動零件 | 多且構造複雜 | — | 極少，幾乎不動 |
| 耐用性 | 易鏽蝕、故障率高 | — | 結構穩固、適合海況 |
| 能量轉換 | 波浪推動轉子旋轉 | — | 壓力改變材料磁性 |
💬新技術捨棄複雜機械構造，改用物理材料特性提高可靠度。
