Read Between the Lines

Found as a Tech hit piece in Forbes: This is one of those hidden stories that you're never supposed to come across or read.

Here's the article:

Sunny Saudi Arabia plans to shift most of its domestic energy use to solar and nuclear power, diverting more oil to exports, a Saudi official said yesterday at the Third Saudi Solar Energy Forum in Riyadh.

“The use of alternative sustainable and reliable resources reduces dependency on hydrocarbons and keeps them as a source for income for future generations,” said Khalid Al Sulaiman, the vice president for renewable energy at a center called the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy.

In conjunction with Sulaiman’s speech, the Saudi government published a statement through the Middle East and North Africa News Network that emphasized Saudi Arabia’s growing energy demands — from 43 gigawatts in the summer of 2010 to more than 120 gigawatts in 2030— because of population growth and development.

But Sulaiman’s comments, reported in Saudi newspapers including the Saudi Gazette and Arab News, make clear the kingdom’s alternative-energy program is designed not just to meet the demands of future growth, but to reduce use of fossil fuels, leaving more petroleum to enrich the kingdom through exports.

“To meet this growing energy demand and maintain long-term economic prosperity, it is critical that the Kingdom add new power generating capacity while reducing the amount of fossil fuels used to produce electricity,” Sulaiman said.

Saudi Arabia also plans to create jobs by creating a solar power manufacturing industry, making and possibly exporting its own solar-power generation equipment.

“The development of solar energy in Saudi Arabia is expected to have a large impact on the Kingdom’s future economic growth,” Sulaiman said.

The kingdom is launching a $100 billion spending drive for renewable energy, Bloomberg reported last week. Saudi and French officials signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement last month to develop nuclear power facilities in Saudi Arabia.

OKAY -- why is the country with 25% of the planet's oil reserves going to go to solar? The nuclear option is to make, er, 'power' to counter Iran's nuclear 'power'.