Away from international headlines, Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil producer and exporter, took a significant step towards cleaner and greenery energy this week with the announcement that it would join IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Although it is not the first Gulf nation to join the fledgling body, the addition of the Arab and energy world heavyweight is the clearest indicator yet that the Middle East is serious about committing petrodollars to bring to market cleaner, cheaper, more accessible and renewable sources of energy for the world.

Heads of state speaking at the WFES opening plenary included (from left) the presidents of Greece and the Maldives, the prime ministers of Turkey and Malaysia, and Masdar CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber. Not pictured, the crown princes of Spain and Denmark

Despite cynical suggestions that this is yet another way for Arab oil producers to expand their grip on global energy supplies, the case for renewables in this part of the world comes down to pure economics. Why burn finite hydrocarbon resources for yourself, after all, if you can save them and sell them? Opportunity cost at its best.

But it isn’t just the hydrocarbon economies making the transition. Egypt, Jordan, Syria and others in the Levant and North Africa face a different economic equation, one involving much larger populations and far fewer natural resources. The Arab world’s legendary population bulge – an explosion in its millennial population – and rising energy demand from infrastructure, agriculture and economic diversification projects has left more governments in the region pondering and activating alternative energy initiatives.

The Arab world is also not keen to be on the receiving end of energy supplies. Many of the RE projects underway, for example, have significant academic, R&D, technology transfer, global investment and production elements, so countries here can build both their own renewable energy supplies and the people to run them.

Saudi Arabia, for example, has invested US$12.5 billion in the sustainability-oriented King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; it is also investing in polysilicon manufacture and CCS. The Saudi oil minister has gone on record on multiple occasions stating the kingdom’s goal is to become the largest exporter of clean energy and the most important centre for solar energy research within 30 to 50 years.

Qatar, home to the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves and the first Gulf country to join the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction project, is also considering commissioning one of the world’s largest solar power complexes to meet domestic demand. Qatar too is pursuing capacity building in energy efficiency and R&D.

Elsewhere, Syria is investigating solar and wind power and building a domestic centre for research; Egypt has established a US$30 million independent think tank dedicated to RE research and tech transfer – an institute supported largely by European funds – and has more than 100MW installed capacity in wind power.

But perhaps one of the most ambitious and far-reaching projects is the Desertec transmission supergrid, backed by Jordan’s Prince Hassan Bin Talal. The grid would connect CSP and wind stations seeded across the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle East to provide Europe with up to a sixth of its electricity needs. The supergrid would also boost the region’s stressed water supplies, as the CSP plants would also serve desalination purposes.

In the backyard of the World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi last year stated its aim to produce seven per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. And while the region’s growing interest in renewables cannot be credited exclusively to Masdar, the impact and success of the initiative has certainly encouraged others in the region.

In the end, adding more and moneyed players to the table can only be a good thing. Investment and scale are critical to achieving grid parity and in bringing better and innovative solutions to market, and if we can lower emissions while doing it, so much the better. After all, the energy of the future is not the energy of the past: the sun and wind, hydro and geothermal sources know no geographical boundaries and are within reach of us all.