Checking out the solar hotel
How China’s “sun king” dreamed of cities built of solar panels
Could we build cities using solar panels instead of walls? That’s the dream that Huang Ming, a wealthy entrepreneur in China’s Shandong province, has had since the 1980s. He’s become known as the ‘Sun King’ after building a vast solar park, including a showcase hotel, to prove a new kind of solar architecture is possible. So why hasn’t it caught on? We check into a room in the solar hotel and examine the vision and sometimes unfulfilled dreams of solar architecture in China.
Plus, why do bins in Copenhagen have shelves built into them? Clue: it helps the city’s poorest people.
Presenter: Mukul Devichand
Reporters: Emma Wilson and Harriet Noble
(Image: Huang Ming and his solar hotel, Credit: ѿý)
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People Fixing the World
Brilliant solutions to the world’s problems