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A return to wind power will help shipowners meet emission targets.
恢复风力发电将有助于船东实现排放目标。
In 1926 an unusual vessel arrived in New York after crossing the Atlantic. This was a converted sailing ship renamed Baden-Baden.
1926年，一艘不寻常的船只横渡大西洋抵达纽约。这是一艘经过改装的帆船，更名为巴登巴登号。
Its two masts had been torn down and a pair of 15-metre-high revolving cylinders were mounted on its deck instead.
它的两根桅杆已被拆除，甲板上安装了一对15米高的旋转气缸。
Known as Flettner rotors, after Anton Flettner, their German inventor, the rotors worked like sails.
这种气缸被称为弗莱特纳转子，以德国发明家安东·弗莱特纳(Anton Flettner)的名字命名，其工作原理类似于帆。
Not only were they extremely efficient, allowing the vessel to consume less than half the fuel an oil-powered ship of a similar size would use, they also let the craft tack closer to an oncoming wind than its original canvas rigging allowed.
它们不仅效率极高，使船舶消耗的燃料不到类似尺寸的油动力船舶的一半，而且还使船舶比原来的帆布索具更接近迎面风。
The rotors were hailed as a great achievement at the time (praised by Albert Einstein, among others) before cheap oil caused interest to wane.
在廉价石油的吸引力减弱之前，这种转子在当时被誉为一项伟大成就（阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦等人都称赞过）。
More recently, the cost of oil has been rising--and not just financially.
最近，石油成本一直在上升——而且不仅仅是经济成本。
Ships, which transport more than 80% of the world's goods, account for some 3% of humanity's greenhouse-gas emissions, a similar fraction to aviation.
船舶运输了全球80%以上的货物，其排放量约占人类温室气体排放量的3%，与航空业的比例相似。
Ports are, therefore, imposing emission limits on marine craft. The International Maritime Organisation has set targets to reduce emissions to net-zero by “around” 2050.
因此，港口对船舶设定排放限值。国际海事组织设定了到2050年“左右”将排放量减少到净零的目标。
The imprecision arises because at present there is no easy way of getting there. A return to sail has been heralded before as a way to cut pollution.
之所以不确定，是因为目前还没有简单的方法可以达到这一目标。此前曾有人宣称恢复航行是减少污染的一种方式。
It has led, in recent years, to renewed interest in Flettner rotors as well as other wind technologies, including rigid sails, giant kites and tall structures called suction sails.
近年来，它重新引起了人们对弗莱特纳转子以及其他风力技术的兴趣，包括硬帆、巨型风筝和被称为吸力帆的高层结构。
Yet the marine industry, like many of its vessels, can take a long time to change course.
然而，与许多船舶一样，海洋工业可能需要很长时间才能改变方向。
After a period in which progress was limited to fanciful sketches and small-scale trials, shipowners are now starting to place orders to retrofit existing cargo ships and build wind-assisted vessels. A new age of sail may be in the offing.
在经历了一段仅限于草图构想和小规模试验的时期后，船东现在开始下订单改造现有货船并建造风力辅助船舶。航海的新时代可能即将到来。
Wind is particularly suitable as a form of auxiliary power for larger deep-sea vessels. Battery technology cannot at present power much beyond small craft operating on short routes.
风特别适合作为大型深海船舶的辅助动力。目前，电池技术只能为短途航行的小型船只提供动力。
And though alternative fuels made via green processes, such as biofuels, hydrogen and ammonia, have the necessary oomph, little infrastructure exists to make and distribute them.
尽管通过绿色工艺生产的替代燃料（例如生物燃料、氢气和氨）很有吸引力，但制造和分销它们的基础设施却很少。
Initially, at least, they will be expensive. Hence, even for ships that use alternative fuels, harnessing the wind will help reduce costs and emissions further.
至少在最初，它们会很昂贵。因此，即使对于使用替代燃料的船舶，利用风能也将有助于进一步降低成本和排放。
Flettner rotors remain an attractive solution. As the wind flows around the revolving cylinders, the rotation creates an area of high air pressure on one side and lower pressure on the other.
弗莱特纳转子仍然是一个有吸引力的解决方案。当风绕着旋转的圆柱体流动时，旋转会在一侧产生高气压区域，而在另一侧产生低压区域。
Thanks to a phenomenon known as the Magnus effect (which also helps spinning balls curve), this pressure differential creates a force at right angles to the wind direction.
由于马格努斯效应（这也有助于旋转球弯曲），这种压力差会产生与风向成直角的力。
On a horizontal aircraft wing, it generates lift. On a vertical rotor, it helps push a ship forward.
在水平飞机机翼上，它产生升力。在垂直转子上，它有助于推动船舶前进。
The rotors can be turned at different speeds and in different directions allowing them to be “trimmed” to the prevailing wind conditions.
转子可以以不同的速度和不同的方向转动，从而可以根据盛行的风况进行“调整”。
All this is done automatically, so no additional crew are needed. Among the companies supplying modern-day Flettner rotors is Norsepower, a firm based in Finland.
所有这些都是自动完成的，因此不需要额外的工作人员。位于芬兰的挪世航力（Norsepower）是供应现代弗莱特纳转子的公司之一。
Earlier this year it won what it says is the biggest ever wind-propulsion deal, with an order to fit six 35-metre rotors to each of three new cargo ships being built for Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, a French shipping owner. The vessels will be chartered to Airbus, a European aerospace group.
今年早些时候，该公司赢得了据称是有史以来最大的风力推进交易，为船东法国路易达孚航运集团（Louis Dreyfus Armateurs）建造的三艘新货船安装转子，每艘都安装了六个35米高的转子。这些船只将租给欧洲航空航天集团空中客车公司（Airbus）。
Each will carry enough partially constructed aircraft made up of fuselages, wings and tails, to be assembled into six A320 airliners at Airbus's factories in America.
每架飞机都将携带足够的由机身、机翼和尾翼组成的半成品飞机，以便在Airbus位于美国的工厂组装成六架A320客机。
Norsepower has already fitted eight ships with rotors and has a backlog of orders worth 30 million euros ($32 million).
Norsepower已为8艘船安装了转子，并积压了价值3000万欧元（合3200万美元）的订单。
The ships in service show a reduction in fuel consumption, and thus a similar drop in emissions, of between 5% and 25%, says Tuomas Riski, the firm's outgoing CEO.
该公司即将卸任的首席执行官Tuomas Riski表示，运营中的船舶燃料消耗量有所减少，排放量也相应下降了5%至25%。
Each rotor costs around 1 million euros, which he says can be repaid in fuel savings over three to ten years.
每个转子的成本约为100万欧元，他说这可以在三到十年内通过节省燃料来弥补。
While roughly similar savings are promised by other auxiliary wind-powered systems, exact comparisons are difficult because much depends on factors including wind conditions and the type of ship, as well as its speed and course.
虽然其他辅助风力发电系统也承诺实现大致类似的节省，但进行精确比较很困难，因为很大程度上取决于风况、船舶类型及其速度和航向等因素。
If companies wanted to rethink their logistics, Mr Riski reckons captains could idle their engines most of the time.
Riski认为，如果公司想要重新考虑物流，船长们可以在大部分时间里让引擎闲置。
