Yangtze marker lights to go solar

The Yangtze River waterway administration has announced that it will use solar power for the more than 5,700 marker lights along China's busiest waterway.

All 5,700 of the battery-powered navigation mark lights along the world's third longest river will gradually be replaced with domestically produced solar-powered lights over a two-year period, Wang Qufa, an official with the Wuhan-based Yangtze waterway bureau, said yesterday.

"Solar powered lights will cut costs because there is no need to maintain them until five years after they have been installed. They also avoid the use of pollutant lead-acid batteries," he said.