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Jeff carpoff was a good mechanic. But as a businessman, he struggled. [qh]
杰夫·卡波夫是个优秀的修理工。但作为一名商人，他举步维艰。[qh]
In the two decades since high school, he’d lost one repair shop after another, filed for personal bankruptcy, and watched a lender foreclose on the small house in a California refinery town where he’d lived with his wife and two young kids. [qh]
高中毕业后的二十年里，他亏掉了一家又一家的维修店，申请了个人破产，看着贷款机构取消了加州炼油厂镇一座小房子的赎回权，那里是他与妻子以及两个孩子的住所。[qh]
By 2007, he was 36, jobless, and adrift.[qh]
2007年，他36岁，没有工作，四处漂泊。[qh]
Yet there, at his life’s lowest, the remarkable happened. [qh]
然而，在他人生最低潮的时候，奇迹发生了。[qh]
A contraption he’d rigged up in his driveway—a car trailer decked with solar panels and a heavy battery—got the attention of people with real money.[qh]
他在自家车道上安装的一个精巧装置——一个装有太阳能电池板和重型电池的汽车拖车——引起了有钱人的注意。[qh]
Carpoff could scarcely have imagined it. [qh]
卡波夫几乎想象不到。[qh]
He’d never gone to college and had no experience in green technology. His invention, he thought, was “crazy, harebrained.” [qh]
他从未上过大学，也没有绿色科技方面的经验。他认为自己的发明“愚蠢、古怪”。[qh]
But investors saw the makings of a clean-energy revolution.[qh]
但投资者看到了开启一场清洁能源革命的曙光。[qh]
For decades, there was basically one way to rush power to places without electricity: the portable diesel generator. [qh]
几十年来，基本上只有一种方法可以把电力输送到没有电的地方: 便携式柴油发电机。[qh]
It kept equipment running and lights on at construction sites, outdoor events, movie sets, disaster zones.[qh]
便携式柴油发电机保证了建筑工地、户外活动、电影布景以及灾区的设备运行和照明效果。[qh]
But diesel generators ate the ozone layer; warmed the planet; and caused smog, acid rain, and possibly cancer, on top of their noise, smell, and fuel cost.[qh]
但是，柴油发电机破坏臭氧层; 导致地球变暖; 除噪音、气味和燃料成本外，还会产生雾霾、酸雨，可能还会引起癌症。[qh]
Carpoff’s machine—a solar generator on wheels—was a sun-fueled alternative. He called it the Solar Eclipse. [qh]
卡波夫的机器——带轮子的太阳能发电机——以太阳能为燃料，是柴油发电机的替代品。他将其称之为“日食”。[qh]
The design was so simple that it was a wonder no one seemed to have thought of it before.[qh]
这个设计如此简单，以前似乎没有人有过这样的想法，简直是个奇迹。[qh]
Carpoff was a paunchy man with blue eyes and apple cheeks—a “big chipmunk,” as a colleague called him—who gulped rather than spit his chewing tobacco and spent Sundays watching NASCAR.[qh]
卡波夫这个男人蓝眼睛，脸颊圆鼓鼓，大腹便便——一个同事称他为“大花栗鼠”——他咀嚼烟草时总是吞下而不是吐出来，每个周日都要观看纳斯卡(全美运动汽车竞赛协会)比赛。[qh]
In March 2011, he was singing the national anthem at a local baseball game when he got a text that he’d made his first major sale: The paint company Sherwin-Williams had bought 192 of his generators, for nearly $29 million. [qh]
2011年3月，在当地的一场棒球比赛上，他唱着国歌，突然收到一条短信，说他完成了第一笔大买卖: 涂料公司宣伟以近2900万美元的价格购买了他发明的192台发电机。[qh]
Twenty-nine frickin’ million. It reduced him to tears.[qh]
2900万的巨款。这使他流下了眼泪。[qh]
That’s how Carpoff told the story of the day his life changed.[qh]
这就是卡波夫讲述他的生活发生改变的那天的故事。[qh]
The millions of dollars in that first deal were like the drips before a downpour. [qh]
第一笔交易中的数百万美元也只是倾盆大雨前的雨滴。[qh]
Over the next eight years, blue-chip corporations such as U.S. Bank, Progressive Insurance, and Geico would buy thousands of Carpoff’s generators. [qh]
在接下来的8年里，美国银行、进步保险和政府雇员保险等蓝筹公司购买了数千台卡波夫的发电机。[qh]
Inc. magazine would call his company, DC Solar, a “renewable energy powerhouse” with a product “people clearly needed.” [qh]
《Inc. 》杂志将他的公司“DC太阳能”称为“可再生能源发电所”，生产“人们显然需要”的产品。[qh]
The Obama administration would make DC Solar a partner—alongside Amazon, Alphabet, and AT&T—in a national program to enlist tech in the fight against climate change.[qh]
奥巴马政府把“DC太阳能”与亚马逊、Alphabet和美国电话电报公司一起列为一项国家计划的合作伙伴，该计划旨在利用科技来应对气候变化。[qh]
