Now if we could just get the sun to come out between November and April

Adding to the list of miracles that are to happen in the city before the year 2010 is the installation of solar panels across the city. As part of a three-year plan, over 100,000 square meters of panels will be put on the roofs of office and apartment buildings, universities and nursing homes in Shanghai.

Jiao Yang, the municipal spokeswoman enlightened readers of Xinhuanet in saying that solar energy is “clean, renewable and inexhaustible.” Wow! She added that the government will subsidize the construction of these panels. The city also plans to add some power generators with a capacity of 5,000 kilowatts combined. This will be completed by 2007.

There are 30 similar projects througout the city as part of the plan to promote green energy. They branch out to some factories in the city and stretch out all the way to Songjiang University Town, New Jiangwan City, Yangpu District and even Chongming Island.

In the future, downtown locales with “landscaping lighting systems” will also benefit from solar energy. It’s kind of like bottling up the sun and saving some of it for evening hours -- which sounds pretty cool. We wish them luck, what with the pollution and all. Maybe that will be cleared up before 2010 as well.

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Photo from Dricota!.