摘要：Two massive power blackouts occurring on consecutive days last summer in India1 have highlighted the difficulties developing nations face when vulnerable power grids are taxed by the growing use of air conditioners. One factor in the blackouts is a weak monsoon season in India, which resulted in below-normal water levels at some hydroelectric dams and less electricity to go around.1 Escalating consumer demand for air conditioners likewise may be implicated. Catherine Wolfram, co-director of the Energy Institute at Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, points to data showing that the increase in energy demand between the hottest and coldest months of the year among the 16 million residents of Delhi, India, more than doubled between 2000 and 2009.2 In a 2012 essay on this research she concluded, “A large part of the explanation for this is that air conditioner sales have increased dramatically.”3
