About 5,000 households in Shanghai have chosen to use relatively expensive "green" electricity as part of efforts to protect the environment.
A total of 5,524 households and 22 companies have so far purchased 15.8 million kwh of green electricity, said Zhu Rong, marketing manager for Shanghai Power Company.
Since the end of last year, the city government has been encouraging residents and companies to voluntarily buy green electricity to support environmental protection in Shanghai.
Because of high production costs, green electricity is priced at 1.14 yuan (14 US cents) per kwh, nearly twice the price of standard coal-generated electricity.
The price of green power only covers about 30 percent of the cost to produce it.
The electricity is generated from either solar or wind power.
"I bought 1,080 kwh - three years' worth - of green electricity, which means I pay about 16 yuan more per month than I do for standard electricity," said Zhao Zhong, a resident. "I am giving support to the development of power from renewable resources."
In 2003, the government demonstrated a solar and wind power project in an effort to reduce pollution caused by coal burning.
The city's solar and wind energy power generation capacity is about 53.6 million kws at present.