The gold dome atop Savannah's City Hall — and the rest of the riverfront building — will go completely dark for an hour this weekend as part of a global energy conservation event.

Officials will turn out the lights at City Hall from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday as part of Earth Hour, a voluntary event to aid the environment that's enlisted participants in nearly 7,000 cities worldwide.

Savannah officials said the electricity saved in that one hour will help the city toward its larger goal of reducing the local government's carbon footprint by 15 percent by the year 2020.

City officials are encouraging Savannah residents and business owners to also go without electricity for that single hour Saturday.

Tags: Savannah, earth hour, savannah city hall