Dubai, the land where everything is larger than life, has greenlighted plans to build the world’s largest solar panel manufacturing plant.  The photovoltaic production facility, Solar Technologies FZE, will be constructed at Dubai’s Technopark beginning next month and could begin producing cells as early as the last quarter of 2010.

Dilip Rahulan, the Chairman and CEO of Solar Technologies FZE said about solar energy, “The energy from sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to the global energy consumption for a whole year.”  His company has plans to subsequently open plants in Mexico and Bulgaria after the Dubai facility is in operation.

It’s good to see Dubai hopping in full steam on renewable energy.  In addition to the abundant natural resources of fossil fuels throughout the Arabian peninsula, the area is also obviously one of the most sunny regions on the planet, making for a potentially easy transition from an economy based on the 20th Century power sources of oil & natural gas to 21st Century solar energy.

You can takepart in promoting solar energy here in the United States by checking out the Solar Energy Industries Association.

LINKS:

Khaleej Times: Green-light for region’s largest solar panel plant in Dubai

Gulf News: Solar panel plant planned

BBJ: Dubai firm in first Mideast solar panel production