"Until now, all the oil-producing countries under the lead of Saudi Arabia did everything to torpedo renewable energies," said Wolfgang Palz, chairman of the independent World Council for Renewable Energy, speaking on the sidelines of an international conference on renewable energy in Algiers in June.

"This is really a big change now because with all this talking about the limitations of conventional resources," oil-producing countries "feel obliged to do something," he said.

$425MM capital cost for 150 MW, 83% gas, is not remotely cost effective.  Solar at $15/bbl by 2020 obscures that cost is available today.  Southern Spain climate could compete with Algeria climate.

My alarm bells rang when I read that Saudi Arabia suppresses solar energy, "Until now, all the oil-producing countries under the lead of Saudi Arabia did everything to torpedo renewable energies,".  Absolutely not true.  Not there, true here under Bush.

The biographer of the King sent me the message that President Clinton told the King that "solar energy would not be supported as long as oil was plentiful and cheap."  The suppression of solar energy was and is a US policy, not a Saudi policy.

Their prophecy was that solar and nuclear renaissance will occur after peak oil.