In China, the longest ultrahigh-voltage power line stretches more than 2,000 miles from the far northwest to the populous southeast — the equivalent of transmitting electricity from Idaho to New York City.

在中国，最长的特高压输电线路从西北偏远地区延伸至人口密集的东南沿海，全长超3200公里，相当于从爱达荷州向纽约市输送电力。

The power line starts in a remote desert in northwest China, where vast arrays of solar panels and wind turbines generate electricity on a monumental scale. It snakes southeast, following an ancient river between mountain ranges before reaching Anhui Province near Shanghai, home to 61 million people and some of China’s most successful electric car and robot manufacturers.

这条线路始于中国西北的偏远沙漠——那里铺设着大规模光伏阵列与风力涡轮机，发电量惊人。线路向东南蜿蜒，沿着山脉间的古老河道延伸，最终抵达上海附近、有6100万人口安徽省，那里也是中国多家顶尖电动汽车与机器人制造商的所在地。

That’s a single power line. China has 41 others. Each is capable of carrying more electricity than any utility transmission line in the United States. That’s partly because China is using technology that makes its lines far more efficient than almost anywhere else in the world. The feat is owed to China’s ambitious national energy policies and the fact that few residents along the path of these lines dare object — even though the lines emit static electricity that local people said they could feel when holding a metal fishing pole.

这仅仅是其中一条输电线路。目前中国已建成41条类似线路，每条的输电容量均超过美国任何一条输电线路。部分原因在于中国采用的技术使其线路效率远超全球绝大多数地区。这一成就的背后，既得益于中国雄心勃勃的国家能源政策，也是因为线路途经区域的民众极少敢于反对——尽管当地居民表示，手持金属鱼竿时能感受到线路产生的静电。

“As long as you don’t fish directly underneath the wires and keep the fishing line from getting tangled in the wires, it’s basically fine,” Shu Jie, an air-conditioning repairman, said matter-of-factly, showing off a six-inch fish he had just caught.

“只要不在下面钓，鱼线不要挂在杆上，基本上没事，”空调维修工舒杰（音）一边展示他刚钓到的一条大约15厘米长的鱼，一边淡定地说。

China’s aggressive embrace of clean energy technologies, at a faster pace than even its own government expected or planned, has left it with an unquenchable thirst for electricity. Half the country’s new cars are battery-powered, and the 30,000 miles of high-speed rail lines run on electricity. Wind and solar energy provided over a quarter of China’s power in April, a milestone that few other countries can brag about.

 中国大力推广清洁能源技术，速度甚至超出了政府自身的预期与规划，这使得中国对电力的需求变得无法遏制。中国新增汽车中半数为新能源汽车，约4.8万公里的高速铁路网也全部依靠电力驱动。今年4月，风电与光伏发电量占中国总发电量的比例已超四分之一，这一里程碑式成就全球鲜有国家能够企及。

But much of that clean energy is produced in the country’s sunny, windy western and northern regions, far from most of its people and factories. More than 90 percent of China’s 1.4 billion people live in the east, where cloudy days, windless nights and sluggish rivers limit the potential for clean energy. So to move the electricity to where it is needed most, China is urgently upgrading its power grid.

然而，这些清洁能源大部分产自光照充足、风力强劲的西部与北部地区，与人口密集、工业集中的区域相距遥远。中国14亿人口中超90%居住在东部，那里白天多云、夜间风力微弱、河流平缓，清洁能源开发潜力有限。因此，为将电力输送至需求最旺盛的地区，中国在急切地推进电网升级。

Beijing’s central planners, having underestimated the country’s swift adoption of solar and wind energy, are building the world’s first nationwide grid of ultrahigh-voltage power transmission lines.

中国的中央规划部门此前低估了国内风电、光伏产业的发展速度，如今正着手建设全球首个覆盖全国的特高压输电网络。

Beijing’s expansion of its power grid contrasts sharply with President Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” approach of doubling down on fossil fuels and rolling back federal programs to spur greater use of clean energy.

 中国的电网扩张计划，与特朗普总统推行的“钻吧，宝贝，钻吧”(Drill, baby, drill)政策形成鲜明对比——后者主张增加化石能源开采，并且撤销了联邦层面推动清洁能源应用的相关项目。

舒杰在特高压线路附近用长金属鱼竿钓鱼时能感受到静电，他表示会尽量避开线路正下方。“基本上没事，”他说。

In July, the Energy Department terminated its commitment to provide a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for construction of the Grain Belt Express power line to take wind power from Kansas to cities in Illinois and Indiana. That 800-mile ultrahigh-voltage line, which would have covered a shorter distance than dozens of lines already built in China, ran into criticism from rural landowners and Republican lawmakers.

 7月，能源部终止了为“谷物带快线”输电线路提供49亿美元贷款担保的承诺。该线路计划将堪萨斯州的风电输送至伊利诺伊州与印第安纳州的城市。这条特高压输电线路全长约1200公里，短于中国建成的数十条特高压线路，遭到农村土地所有者与共和党议员的批评。

Even before Mr. Trump took office, other renewable energy projects in the United States had to wait as long as 17 years for permits to be approved for transmission lines running a few hundred miles.

事实上，在特朗普就职前，美国其他可再生能源项目中，仅数百公里的输电线路就曾不得不面临长达17年的审批流程。

Many of China’s ultrahigh-voltage lines use direct current technology, which allows them to carry electricity for long distances with barely any of the transmission losses that affect most high-power lines in other countries.

中国多条特高压线路采用直流输电技术，这种技术能实现电力的远距离传输，且几乎不存在其他国家多数高压线路面临的传输损耗问题。

China’s more efficient power lines have broad consequences for the global race against climate change. They will help determine how quickly China can reduce its world-leading use of coal, a stain on the country’s clean energy track record. China uses as much coal as the entire rest of the world, and emits more greenhouse gases than the United States and the European Union combined.

 中国效率更高的输电线路对全球应对气候变化的努力具有深远影响。这些线路将在很大程度上决定中国能否加快减少其全球领先的煤炭使用量——这一直是中国清洁能源发展历程中的污点。中国的煤炭消耗量相当于全球其他国家的总和，温室气体排放量超过美国与欧盟的排放量之和。

The more advanced power grid is starting to address a central problem facing China’s energy planners. In its western regions, where the weather is favorable for solar, wind and hydroelectric power, China produces more renewable energy than it can use.

更先进的电网正着手解决中国能源规划者面临的核心难题：西部地区气候条件适宜发展光伏、风电与水电，可再生能源发电量已超出本地需求。

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, set a goal in 2020 of tripling the country’s capacity to generate wind and solar energy by 2030. The country reached that mark last year — six years ahead of schedule.

中国最高领导人习近平于2020年提出目标：要求到2030年将风电和太阳能发电装机容量提升至当时的三倍。而中国已于去年提前六年达成这一目标。

徐冲村村民。这个村庄靠近全球最长、输电容量最大的特高压线路终点区域。

The country’s government-owned electricity transmission giant, State Grid, was caught unprepared.

中国国有电力传输巨头国家电网对此准备不足。

“State Grid is good at building things, but not six years ahead,” said David Fishman, an electricity consultant in Shanghai.

“国家电网擅长建设项目，但没料到会提前六年达标，”上海的电力行业顾问余德伟(David Fishman)表示。

In some recent months, a tenth of China’s wind and solar capacity has gone unused partly because the grid was unable to move all the power generated.

近几个月来，中国约十分之一的风电、光伏装机容量出现闲置，部分原因是电网无法完全输送所发电力。

“To improve the power system’s ability to absorb new energy, we must accelerate the construction of power grid projects supporting new energy,” Du Zhongming, electricity director of the National Energy Administration in China, said at a news conference last year.

“为提升电力系统对新能源消纳的能力，要加快推进新能源配套电网项目，”中国国家能源局电力司司长杜忠明在去年的新闻发布会上表示。

China already consumes twice as much electricity as the United States. By 2050, China plans to triple its count of ultrahigh-voltage routes.

中国当前的电力消耗量已是美国的两倍。到2050年，中国计划将特高压线路数量再增加两倍。

The most recent public Chinese data, from the end of 2024, showed 19 lines transmitting power at 800 kilovolts. Another 22 lines operated at 1,000 kilovolts. One of them, the behemoth terminating in Guquan, transmits enough electricity at 1,100 kilovolts to power more than seven million American households or 40 million to 50 million Chinese households.

2024年底中国最新公开数据显示，全国已有19条800千伏特高压线路投入运行，另有22条1000千伏线路。其中，一条终点位于泉港的特高压线路以1100千伏电压运行，输电容量可满足超700万户美国家庭，或4000万至5000万户中国家庭的用电需求。

To put the scale of China’s power grid build out in perspective, consider that the United States has a handful of 765-kilovolt lines and a few running at 500 kilovolts or less, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit research group. The 765-kilovolt lines together total about 2,000 miles — the length of a single line across China.

若要更直观地理解中国电网建设规模，不妨参考以下数据：据非营利研究机构美国电力科学研究院统计，美国目前仅有少数几条765千伏线路，其余多为500千伏及以下电压等级线路；所有765千伏线路总长度约3200公里，仅相当于中国一条特高压线路的长度。

The Soviet Union built a power line in Central Asia that was designed to operate at 1,150 kilovolts. But it used less powerful equipment and has not run at full tilt for decades.

苏联曾在中亚地区建设过一条设计电压为1150千伏的输电线路，但该线路采用的设备功率较低，且数十年来从未满负荷运行。

在中国中南部的古泉镇（特高压线路终点附近），一片茶园位于该特高压线路下方。

The development of China’s ultrahigh-voltage lines was given a push in 2009, during the global financial crisis. The central government approved enormous investments in their construction to create jobs and head off an economic slowdown. China’s leaders staked ambitious plans for electric vehicles and high-speed rail lines around the same time.

2009年全球金融危机期间，中国特高压线路建设获得推动。中央政府批准巨额投资用于特高压项目建设，以创造就业岗位、缓解经济下行压力。与此同时，中国领导人还制定了发展电动汽车与高速铁路的宏大规划。

In March 2011, the construction of ultrahigh-voltage lines gained further momentum from the partial meltdown of three nuclear reactors after an earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan. Beijing delayed many prospective nuclear reactors, which had been planned near cities, and doubled down on transmission lines from remote areas.

2011年3月，日本福岛地震引发海啸，导致三座核反应堆发生部分熔毁，这一事件进一步推动了中国特高压线路建设。中国政府推迟了多个原计划在城市周边建设的核电项目，加紧建设从偏远地区输送电力的特高压线路。

Construction of the power lines has helped China reduce its emissions of toxic air pollution and greenhouse gases. A University of Chicago analysis of satellite data, released in August, found that air pollution in China had plunged 41 percent since 2014. That added almost two years to the country’s average life expectancy.

特高压线路建设有助于中国减少有毒空气污染物与温室气体排放。芝加哥大学8月发布的卫星数据分析显示，2014年以来，中国空气质量污染程度下降41%，这使得中国人口平均预期寿命延长了近两年。

Beijing, once notorious for smog, mostly stopped burning coal for electricity in 2020 and now relies partly on wind power delivered from hundreds of miles away.

曾因雾霾问题闻名的北京已于2020年基本停止使用煤炭发电，目前部分电力来自数百公里外输送的风电。

China’s ultrahigh-voltage network has helped the country limit its dependence on imported oil and natural gas, but it has also created new vulnerabilities. Much of northwestern China, where many of the lines are being built, is mountainous. As a result, lines had to be closely bunched as they hug a single, flood-prone tributary of the Yellow River that passes between earthquake-prone mountain ranges from Dunhuang to Lanzhou in Gansu Province.

中国特高压网络有助于降低国家对进口石油与天然气的依赖，但也带来了新的脆弱性。中国西北部多为山区，也是特高压线路的主要建设区域之一。因此，这些线路不得不密集排列，沿着黄河一条易发洪水的支流铺设，这条支流在甘肃省敦煌至兰州的地震多发山区之间蜿蜒流淌。

For decades, countries have talked about building power lines similar to China’s. They have found it difficult to persuade people living along the routes to accept any high-power lines, much less ultrahigh-voltage lines.

数十年来，多国都曾探讨建设类似中国的输电线路，要让沿线居民接受任何高压输电线都已十分困难，更不用说超高压线路了。

China can build faster because of its top-down industrial planning, government control of information and intolerance for public dissent.

中国之所以能快速推进特高压建设，得益于自上而下的产业规划、政府对信息的管控，以及对公众异议的零容忍。

一块警示村民禁止在鱼塘钓鱼的牌子，上面有一名触电烧伤者的照片。

Some villagers in Anhui Province living near China’s longest ultrahigh-voltage line said they had reservations about the line, although they did not try to stop its construction.

安徽省部分居住在最长特高压线路附近的村民表示，尽管他们对线路存在顾虑，但并未试图阻止建设。

The line carries mostly solar and wind energy, as well as some coal-fired power, from the Gurbantünggüt Desert in Xinjiang. It helps supply electricity to big eastern Chinese cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

这条线路主要输送来自新疆古尔班通古特沙漠的风电、光伏电力，以及部分燃煤电力，为上海、杭州、南京等中国东部大城市供电。

Xu Shicai, a farm manager in Xuchong, a village next to lines that pass within 30 yards of homes, expressed concern.

许士才（音）是徐冲村的农场管理者，该村部分房屋距离输电线路不足30米。他表达了自己的担忧。

“When you hold an umbrella in the rain, sparks will fly from it, and you’ll feel numb,” he said. “When fishing, it’s hard to hold the pole under the wires, as your hands feel very numb.”

“下雨的时候打雨伞，那个伞冒火星，人感觉麻麻的。钓鱼的时候，你在那个底下，觉得钓鱼杆拿不住，很麻的。”

The village’s small fish pond lies directly under the power lines. A “no fishing” sign has a cartoon of a skeleton being electrocuted and a graphic photo of a badly burned man who was apparently electrocuted. But Mr. Xu and other residents said that did not stop many villagers from fishing because the pond was so close by.

村里的小鱼塘恰好位于输电线路正下方，一块禁止钓鱼的警示牌上画着骷髅触电的卡通图案，并配有显然是触电导致的重度烧伤者的真实照片。但许士才与其他村民表示，由于鱼塘离家近，很多村民仍会在此钓鱼。

Mr. Xu said he accepted the power line because it was an important national project, but he worried it might scare off visitors. “I’m used to it now,” he said. “But honestly, we don’t want more lines built here.”

许士才表示，他接受这条线路的存在，因为这是重要的国家工程，但担心线路会吓跑游客。“现在习惯了，”他说。“建成之后，说真的我们也不希望他再建。”