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human development’. 6 Masdar has initiated the Masdar City project, which intends to
create a carbon-emissions-free community (see below).
1.4 Renewable sources of energy
The Gulf countries (as well as North Africa) also enjoy a clear advantage for the
development of two key renewable sources of energy, namely solar and wind.
With respect to solar energy, the availability of the resource is not in doubt. The
average annual solar radiation falling on the Arabian Peninsula is about 2200 kWh
(th)/m 2 , and the vast expanses of uninhabited land offer huge potential for harnessing the
energy of the sun. The region enjoys 40 per cent more sun than Spain.
Interest in solar energy has existed for decades. In Saudi Arabia the King
Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) has engaged in solar energy
research since its establishment in 1977. Initially it signed two major cooperation
agreements, one with the United States (SOLERAS) and the second with Germany
(HYSOLAR). The major achievement to date has been the establishment of a solar
village in which all power is generated from the sun. 7 The village has mainly served as a
testing ground, demonstrating the inadequacy of early photovoltaic equipment under
harsh desert conditions. Recently, KACST has signed an agreement with IBM Research
to establish jointly a Nanotechnology Center of Excellence. In this context, production
capacity at the solar village is to be increased five times, with KACST and IBM working
together to use nanotechnology to develop the village and improve its performance,
focusing on new materials for converting solar energy into electricity. 8
In the context of its first round of research grants, the new King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology, has awarded a scientist at Stanford University a
grant of $25 million to start a centre of research into how the cost of solar power can be
made competitive with that of coal. 9 Initiatives of this kind may go a long way to speed
up the pace of innovation in the field.
6 www.masdaruae.com/.
7 On solar energy research activities in Saudi Arabia see Saleh A. Al-Athel ‘Solar Energy in the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia’, available at www.un.int/saudiarabia/solar2; Fahad Huraib, ‘Saudi Arabia R&D effort in
the field of Solar Energy’, available at www.un.int/saudiarabia/solar3; F. S. Huraib, S. M. Hasnain and S.
H. Alawaji, ‘Solar Energy Projects in Saudi Arabia’, available at www.un.int/saudiarabia/solar1.
8 Saudi Gazette, 27 October 2008.
9 ‘Gulf Oil States Seeking a Lead in Clean Energy’, New York Times, 13 January 2009.
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