Breaking News English

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READING:

The world is in a climate crisis. We need to change how we get our power. This means we need to end the use of fossil fuels, like oil and gas. The European Space Agency (ESA) has started on work that could provide millions of homes with clean energy. It has approved a three-year project to test huge solar farms in space. ESA engineers hope to send energy wirelessly from space into people's homes. Testing will take place over three years. An ESA spokesperson said one solar-farm satellite could create the same amount of electricity as a power station on Earth. She added that the aim is to have many of these giant satellites in orbit. They could cut our use of fossil fuels and reduce energy shortages.

The ESA project is called Solaris. The ESA states on its website that it wants to create "a clean and secure energy future for European citizens". Josef Aschbacher, the director-general of the ESA, told the BBC that solar power from space could be of "enormous" help. He said: "We need to convert into carbon-neutral economies and therefore change the way we produce energy. We especially need to reduce the fossil fuel part of our energy production." He added: "If you can do it from space, and I'm saying 'if we could,' because we are not there yet, this would be absolutely fantastic. It would solve a lot of problems." The satellites will be around 1.7 km long. The International Space Station is 110 m in length.

Try easier levels. The listening is a little shorter, with less vocabulary.

Solar Energy - Level 0  |  Solar Energy - Level 1  |   Solar Energy - Level 2

This page has all the levels, listening and reading for this lesson.

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