Papakura has tuned into the sun with its BP service station becoming the first in New Zealand to run solar-power.

The station is one of 200 BP solar service stations planned worldwide.

The new service station is part of the new motorway service center sited between Papakura and Drury. The BP station will receive up to one third of its required electrical demand from the sun's rays.

Pumps and lights at the station will draw from the solar panels and any excess electricity will be exported to the national grid during the day and the shortfall imported at night.

Instalation of the solar power system cost around $300,000.

BP promoters say solar energy has much potential for the future. BP plans to further its research which now spans two decades.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>