Let’s start with fusion: Google’s deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems is intended to provide the tech giant with 200 megawatts of power. This will come from Commonwealth’s first commercial plant, a facility planned for Virginia that the company refers to as the Arc power plant. The agreement represents half its capacity.
让我们从Fusion开始：Google与英联邦融合系统的交易旨在为这家技术巨头提供200兆瓦的力量。这将来自英联邦的第一家商业电厂，该工厂计划为弗吉尼亚州，该公司称其为ARC发电厂。该协议代表其容量的一半。
What’s important to note here is that this power plant doesn’t exist yet. In fact, Commonwealth still needs to get its Sparc demonstration reactor, located outside Boston, up and running. That site, which I visited in the fall, should be completed in 2026.
这里要注意的是，该发电厂还不存在。实际上，英联邦仍然需要获得位于波士顿郊外的Sparc示范反应堆，并运行。我在秋季访问的那个站点应在2026年完成。
(An aside: This isn’t the first deal between Big Tech and a fusion company. Microsoft signed an agreement with Helion a couple of years ago to buy 50 megawatts of power from a planned power plant, scheduled to come online in 2028. Experts expressed skepticism in the wake of that deal, as my colleague James Temple reported.)
（撇开：这不是大型技术公司与融合公司之间的第一笔交易。几年前，微软与Helion签署了一项协议，从计划中的一家发电厂购买了50兆瓦的电力，原定于2028年在线上网。专家在我的同事James Temple上据报道，在那笔交易之后，专家表示持犯罪主义。
Nonetheless, Google’s announcement is a big moment for fusion, in part because of the size of the commitment and also because Commonwealth, a spinout company from MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, is seen by many in the industry as a likely candidate to be the first to get a commercial plant off the ground. (MIT Technology Review is owned by MIT but is editorially independent.)
尽管如此，Google的宣布是融合的重要时刻，部分原因是承诺的规模，也是因为MIT的等离子科学和融合中心的纺纱公司Conmonwealth被业界的许多人认为是候选人，可能是第一个将商业植物脱离地面的候选人。（麻省理工学院技术评论归MIT拥有，但在编辑上是独立的。）
Google leadership was very up-front about the length of the timeline. “We would certainly put this in the long-term category,” said Michael Terrell, Google’s head of advanced energy, in a press call about the deal.
Google的领导力在时间表的长度上非常前期。Google Advanced Energy负责人Michael Terrell在有关该交易的新闻通话中说：“我们肯定会将其列入长期类别。”
The news of Google’s foray into fusion comes just days after the tech giant’s release of its latest environmental report. While the company highlighted some wins, some of the numbers in this report are eye-catching, and not in a positive way.
Google涉足Fusion的消息是在技术巨头发布其最新环境报告的几天后。尽管该公司强调了一些胜利，但本报告中的一些数字令人震惊，而不是积极的。
Google’s emissions have increased by over 50% since 2019, rising 6% in the last year alone. That’s decidedly the wrong direction for a company that’s set a goal to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of the decade.
自2019年以来，Google的排放量增长了50％以上，仅在去年就增加了6％。对于一家设定目标，可以到本十年末达到零净温室气体排放的公司，这绝对是错误的方向。
It’s true that the company has committed billions to clean energy projects, including big investments in next-generation technologies like advanced nuclear and enhanced geothermal systems. Those deals have helped dampen emissions growth, but it’s an arguably impossible task to keep up with the energy demand the company is seeing.
的确，该公司已承诺数十亿美元清洁能源项目，包括对下一代技术等新核和增强地热系统等下一代技术的大量投资。这些交易有助于减弱排放的增长，但要满足公司所看到的能源需求，这是一项不可能的任务。
