来源：《经济学人》
原文见刊日期：2023年1月7日
Fears about the fate of European industry abound. The gas crunch have dealt it a cruel blow. BASF, the world’s largest chemicals-maker, is shifting production away from its headquarters in Ludwigshafen in Germany. Nearly a quarter of the country’s respected small and medium-sized enterprises are reported to be considering moving part of their operations abroad. And even as energy prices have fallen back, America’s protectionist and subsidy-laden Inflation Reduction Act is feeding fresh worries that industry might be lured away from the old continent.
对欧洲工业命运的担忧比比皆是。天然气危机给了它一个残酷的打击。世界上最大的化工制造商巴斯夫（BASF）正在将生产从位于德国路德维希港的总部转移。据报道，德国近四分之一受人尊敬的中小企业正在考虑将部分业务转移到国外。尽管能源价格已经回落，但美国的保护主义和充满补贴的《通胀削减法案》正在加深新的担忧，即工业可能会被引诱离开欧洲大陆。
One unlikely bright spot is the part of Europe with the grimmest weather. A new economy based on renewable energy is taking shape in and around the North Sea. Rather as hydropower fuelled Lancashire’s cotton mills and cheap coal the Ruhr valley’s steel furnaces in the early days of industrialisation, the promise of cheap, abundant wind power is attracting industry and infrastructure to Europe’s northern coasts. If this emerging economy thrives, it could give the continent a new, greener industrial edge.
一个不太可能的亮点是欧洲天气最恶劣的地区。基于可再生能源的新经济正在北海及周边地区形成。正如工业化初期，水力发电为兰开夏郡的棉纺厂提供了动力，廉价煤炭为鲁尔河谷的炼钢熔炉提供了燃料一样，廉价、丰富的风力发电前景正吸引工业和基础设施向欧洲北部沿海地区转移。如果这个新兴的经济蓬勃发展，它可能会给欧洲大陆一个新的、更环保的工业优势。
The North Sea’s strong winds and relative shallowness together make it a huge basin of potential energy. Thanks to taller and more powerful wind turbines, more efficient undersea cables and other technological advances, it is now increasingly being tapped. A group of nine countries near this body of water has plans to install 260GW of offshore wind power by 2050—nearly five times that produced worldwide today, and enough to power all of the European Union’s nearly 200m households.
北海的强风和相对较浅的水深，使其成为一个巨大的潜在能源海盆。由于更高、更强大的风力涡轮机、更高效的海底电缆和其他技术进步，北海现在正被越来越多地利用。这片水域附近的九个国家计划到2050年安装260GW的海上风力发电，这是当今世界风力发电量的五倍，足以为欧盟近2亿户家庭提供电力。
All this is breathing life into a new coastal economy. Esbjerg, a town in southwest Denmark that some consider the capital of the North Sea economy, now boasts companies that make equipment to build and maintain wind turbines. Many once supplied the offshore-oil-and-gas industry, but have shifted their attention to greener customers. Nordic countries are beginning to attract energy-hungry battery plants and data centres.
所有这些都在为一个新的沿海经济注入活力。埃斯比约是丹麦西南部的一个小镇，一些人认为它是北海经济的中心，现在，这个小镇以有很多生产建造和维护风力涡轮机设备的公司而自豪。许多公司曾经是海上油气行业的供应商，但现在已将注意力转移到环保客户身上。北欧国家开始吸引高耗能的电池厂和数据中心。
For this economy to take off, though, Europe will need to focus its energies. A good start would be to cut red tape: getting a permit to build a new wind farm can take ten years, or even longer. Countries bordering the North Sea will need to work together to ensure that the seabed does not become overcrowded with cables and pipes and that infrastructure is looked after. The rise of the new coastal economy could be fiercely resisted in the old industrial heartlands. It will fall to governments to ease the transition.
然而，为了让风电经济起飞，欧洲需要集中精力。一个好的开始是减少繁文缛节：获得建造一个新的风力发电场的许可证可能需要十年，甚至更长时间。北海沿岸国家需要共同努力，确保海底不会因电缆和管道而变得过于拥挤，并确保基础设施得到妥善管理。新沿海经济的崛起可能会遭到旧工业中心地带的强烈抵制。缓和这种过渡的责任将落在各国政府的肩上。