11月的某一天，在經營全球最受歡迎餐廳之一時，把食物變成泡沫，並開創創意料理新時代的西班牙廚師費蘭．阿德里亞，在巴塞隆納一個沒隔間的樓面跳來跳去。他盯著鉛筆素描的心智圖，並仔細檢查塞滿狹窄書架的書。然後停了下來。

“I have a question,” he said in Catalan to the small group of visitors and staff members. “What is wine?”

他用加泰隆語對一小群訪客和工作人員說：「我有一個問題，葡萄酒是什麼？」

There was silence. Finally, cautiously, someone offered, “A drink?” Mr. Adria's eyes widened. “Maybe it is a drink if I put it in a cup. But what if I make it into a sauce and cook with it?” Mr. Adria spun away and began walking again. “Now,” he said over his shoulder as the crowd shuffled in his wake, “what if I turn the wine into ice cream? What is it then?”

現場一片沉默。終於，有人小心翼翼地回答，「一種飲料？」阿德里亞張大眼睛。「如果我把它倒在杯子裡，也許是飲料。但如果我把它做成醬汁並用來烹飪呢？」阿德里亞轉身走開，又開始走來走去。人群在他身後走動，他轉過頭來說：「現在，如果我把酒變成冰淇淋呢？那它又是什麼呢？」

Mr. Adria, 52, has always been inquisitive. Even during the peak years at El Bulli, when Restaurant Magazine named it the world’s best restaurant five times from 2002 to 2009 and he rocketed beyond the standard-fare celebrity chefs into the rarefied air of the gastronomic geniuses, he would pose random questions about the origin of vegetables or fruit.

52歲的阿德里亞向來好問。即使在「鬥牛犬」餐廳的顛峰時期，他也會隨興問到蔬菜或水果的起源。2002年到2009年間鬥牛犬被「餐廳」雜誌五度評選為全球最佳餐廳，他則一飛沖天，超越一般名廚，成為難得的料理天才。

Mr. Adria calculated that he concocted 1,846 dishes during his time there, many of which pushed the boundaries on epicurean labels (the artichoke as rose petals, the olive formed from frozen olive juice). He says the primary reason he closed the restaurant in 2011 was scared of repeating himself. “Can you imagine this pressure?” he said.

阿德里亞計算他在「鬥牛犬」餐廳時期調製出1846道菜，其中許多道拓展了美食標籤的界限（做成玫瑰花瓣的朝鮮薊，用冷凍橄欖汁做成橄欖形狀）。他說，他在2011年關掉餐廳的主要原因是他害怕重複自己。他說：「你能想像這種壓力嗎？」

Now there is pressure of a different kind. Mr. Adria's acclaim came with benefits – he used to charge 80,000 euros, or about $97,000, for an hour-long lecture on creativity.

現在又有了不同的壓力。阿德里亞所獲好評帶來好處，他談創意的演說一小時通常收費8萬歐元，合9萬7000美元。

His latest venture is an umbrella project known as the El Bulli Foundation. Consider the activity on a morning: One group of employees worked in a corner of the loft on prototypes of a website known as BulliPedia that, when finished, will be a type of Wikipedia for haute cuisine. On the opposite side of the room, a young woman edited pages intended for a multivolume book tracing the history of food. At a desk facing the window, three men spent hours researching white asparagus.

他最近的投資事業是一項大型計畫，稱為「鬥牛犬基金會」。想想最近一個早上的活動：一群員工在一個沒隔間樓層的一個角落研究「鬥牛犬百科」網站的雛型，一旦完成，將是一種高級料理的維基百科。在房間的另一端，一名年輕女性在編輯頁面，目的是為出版有好幾冊的追蹤食物歷史巨著。在面窗的桌子旁，三名男士花幾小時研究白蘆筍。

“We are trying to create an entire language for creativity,” he said, adding, “I know this sounds a little pretentious.”

他說：「我們試圖創造創意的整體語言。」並接著說：「我知道這聽起來有點自命不凡。」

Telefonica, the telecommunications giant based in Madrid, is a sponsor. The nonprofit Foundation, Mr. Adria said, is intended to appeal to “chefs, as well as anyone who is interested in the creative process.” He added, “It is a think tank for creativity.”

總公司設在馬德里的西班牙電信公司是贊助商。阿德里亞說，這個非營利基金會的目的是吸引「廚師，以及任何對創意過程有興趣的人」。他接著說，「它是創意的智庫」。

It isn’t obvious yet how ideas will leap from notion to project. Mr. Adria has divided the foundation into two main strands: knowledge, which is the group focused on creating BulliPedia; and creativity, which is focused on “deconstructing the entire process of creativity.”

構想該如何從觀念跳到計畫，還不是很清楚。阿德里亞把基金會分成兩大塊：知識，聚焦於創造鬥牛犬百科的一組；以及創意，聚焦於「解構創意的整個過程」。

He calls this group El Bulli DNA. El Bulli Lab is the Barcelona-based office where people associated with El Bulli DNA work. That should not be confused with 6W Food, which is expected to be a blend of a science museum, an art museum and a house of culinary innovation.

他稱這個群體為鬥牛犬DNA。鬥牛犬實驗室是設在巴塞隆納的辦公室，人員與鬥牛犬DNA的工作有關。不要與6W Food搞混了，後者可望成為一間科學博物館、一間美術館和一間料理創新館的混合體。

Also in the works are a search engine, SeaUrching (named in part for the delicacy) and a language to describe gastronomy known as Huevo, Spanish for egg.

在規畫中的還有搜尋引擎SeaUrching（sea urchin是海膽，此一美食是用它命名的部分原因），以及Huevo的烹飪法，是西班牙文的蛋。

The plans for El Bulli 1846, a home for the innovation, include exhibition areas, a brainstorming room with a glass wall facing the sea and a kitchen for fund-raising events. There is only one problem: It is mostly not happening.

創新館「鬥牛犬1846」計畫包含展示區、有面海玻璃牆的腦力激盪室，以及為募款活動而設的廚房。只有一個問題：大部分還未發生。

The location, about two hours north of Barcelona, is a protected area, Parc Natural del Cap de Creus, jutting into a bay. The park is famous for inspiring the work of Salvador Dali and, later, as the unlikely location of El Bulli.

地點在巴塞隆納北邊約兩小時車程，是保護區，克雷烏斯角自然公園，伸向一個海灣。這座公園以激發達利創作靈感聞名，後來是「鬥牛犬」意想不到的所在地點。

Ecologists objected to the potential impact of the expansion and gathered nearly 96,000 signatures on a petition to stifle it.

生態學家反對擴建計畫的潛在影響，號召了9萬6000人連署請願要求封殺此案。

A modest expansion is underway. Some people say they think Mr. Adria will ultimately get the overhaul he initially desired.

較小規模的擴建正在進行。有些人說，他們認為阿德里亞終會如最初所願獲准大事翻修。

Just after 6 p.m., Mr. Adria stopped to linger over index cards that traced the history of cuisine from the Neolithic era. “If I don’t understand all of this,” he said, “I don’t understand anything.”

下午6點剛過，阿德里亞停下來仔細查看追溯到新石器時代的烹飪史索引卡片。他說：「我若不了解這一切，我就什麼都不了解。」

新一代海基發電陣列的發展，目前仍遠落後於使用更廣泛的再生能源技術，例如風力與太陽能。

But the company pushing a new project on the coast of Wales thinks its update of traditional dam-based hydropower will be much easier to bring to fruition.

不過，在威爾斯海岸推動一項新計畫的這家公司，認為將傳統以水壩為基礎的水力發電加以升級，可讓海基發電的成果更容易實現。

Tidal Lagoon Power Limited says the approach, known as tidal lagoon generation, could provide as much as 10 percent of Britain’s power from six of its projects within a decade. That is an optimistic. Still, those hoping the seas will become an energy source will be watching Swansea Bay, Wales, where the company hopes to get approval this spring to build the first lagoon.

「潮汐潟湖電力有限公司」表示，透過該公司的6項計畫，10年內，這種名為潮汐潟湖發電的方法，最高可望提供英國10%的電力。這項說法十分樂觀。儘管如此，期待海洋能成為能源來源的人，將會密切觀察威爾斯天鵝海灣的發展。該公司希望今春能獲准於該地打造第一座潟湖。

“If it’s put together and it’s a success, people will look for other similar areas where there’s some development opportunity,” said Douglas J. Arent of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. Because it needs a large difference between the levels of high and low tides, tidal lagoon power is likely workable in few places, like Alaska’s Cook Inlet and parts of South Korea. Mr. Arent said it could still be useful because, unlike the wind and sun, tides are predictable.

美國科羅拉多州「國家再生能源實驗室」的道格拉斯．艾倫特說：「若能建造完成，成功發電，人們會開始尋找有開發機會的其他類似地區。因為它需要海水漲退潮時有極大水位差，潮汐潟湖發電只能在少數幾個地方行得通，如阿拉斯加庫克灣與南韓部分地區。但是艾倫特說它仍有用處，因為它和風能、太陽能不同，潮汐是可以預測的。

The Swansea Bay plan is estimated to cost 1 billion pounds, or $1.6 billion. Engineers would build a large holding pool along the shore, contained by a seawall. When the tide rises, water levels become higher outside the pool than in. Gates open to let water enter, turning turbines. When the tide recedes, the levels are higher inside than outside, and the water, when released, turns the turbines in the other direction. In principle, it is not so different from projects like the barrage at the mouth of the Rance river in France, or the Sihwa Lake station in South Korea. Because they often block estuaries, though, such plants raise worries about environments damage. The lagoon approach seeks to minimize such impact.

天鵝海灣計畫估計造價10億英鎊，合16億美元。工程人員將沿著海岸建造一個大型蓄水池，以海堤圍起。漲潮時，池外海水水位高於池內。打開閘門，讓潮水流入，推動渦輪。退潮時，池內水位高於池外。將海水洩出時，從相反方向推動渦輪。原則上，它和法國蘭斯河口或南韓始華湖潮汐電廠的堰壩差不多，但因它們經常封住河口，這類電廠引來破壞環境的憂慮。潟湖的作法尋求將這項衝擊降至最小。

Worldwide, plants in the broader category of tidal range now have about 500 megawatts of power-generating capacity, and that could rise to 800 megawatts by 2020, experts say. That is tiny compared, for example, to global solar panel capacity, which grew by an estimated 100 megawatts every day in 2013.

廣義而言的潮汐發電，全球目前發電總容量約為500百萬瓦，專家表示，這項產能可望在2020年提高到800百萬瓦，與其他發電形式相比算是小兒科。且以全球太陽能板發電為例，2013年產能每天約成長100百萬瓦。

The biggest concern for the project, energy experts say, is its high cost, and the fear of budget overruns, in part because of the need for a 10-kilometer seawall. A report that Tidal Lagoon Power commissioned from the consulting firm Poyry estimated that the Swansea lagoon would require a price of 168 pounds per megawatt hour, just above the guarantee provided to offshore wind farms, considered very expensive. The five projects the company hopes to build subsequently would bring the cost down to 92 pounds per megawatt hour.

能源專家說，這項計畫最令人擔心之處是成本高昂，而且預算可能超支，部分是因它需要建造長10公里的海堤。「潮汐潟湖電力」委託顧問公司「貝利」所做的報告估計，天鵝海潟湖每百萬瓦小時電力的成本價是168英磅，略高於提供給離岸風力發電場的擔保價格，十分昂貴。公司希望後續建造的5個計畫，能將成本降至每百萬瓦小時92英鎊。

“If you are serious about decarbonizing your electricity supply, frankly you need all the technologies available, whether that’s wind, solar, nuclear,” or anything else, said Ali Lloyd, one of the authors of the Poyry report. “There’s a role for all of them.”

貝利報告的作者之一艾里．勞依德說：「在電力供應上，如果你想認真看待去碳這件事，坦白說，你需要所有可用的技術，無論是風能、太陽能、核能，或任何其他能源。所有能源都有它的一角。」