Saudi Arabia Goes Solar – So that We Won’t
SolarChargedDriving.com
Here’s evidence of how single-minded, short-sighted, and just plain ridiculous our addiction to oil has become.
Elites in oil rich countries are investing heavily in renewableenergy forms in part because selling oil to addicts like Americansmakes them a lot more money than selling that same oil to their owncitizens.
Take Saudi Arabia, for example. The Saudi government recently announced a $100 billion investment in nuclear and renewable energy — with the stated goal of increasing the amount of oil available for export.
By 2030, the Saudis will attempt to replace 20 percent of theirenergy generation with renewables, making up the rest of the differencewith nuclear power.
More $$ for future Saudi generations
“The use of alternative sustainable and reliable resources reduces dependency onhydrocarbons and keeps them as a source for income for future [Saudi]generations,” Khalid Al Sulaiman of the King Abdullah City Center forAtomic and Renewable Energy recently told Forbes.
Basically, every gallon of gas the Saudis and other oil-producingcountries save at home means one more gallon to sell on the world market — and more money in Saudi government coffers.
I’m all for Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries goingsolar. But I’m not going to play my appointed role as a sucker forpaying high oil prices to line the pockets of rich elites in the Persian Gulf.
What would you prefer to do: Subsidize solar in far off Saudi Arabiaso that Saudi elites can make more money off of you by selling their oil to us to feed our oil addiction, or put solar up here and drive anoil-free, solar-charged, locally fueled car that keeps lots more money in your own pocket?
Call me an “out-of-touch Lefty” who just doesn’t get how “patriotic”sucking down foreign oil is, but I’d prefer to fuel my car withhome-grown solar electricity that travels a few feet from our rooftop to our car’s batteries rather than thousands of miles from an oil-richcountry going solar in part to make money off of the fact that so fewpeople in the U.S., and in other industrialized countries, are goingsolar, or, to be exact, solar + EV.
Original Article on SolarChargedDriving.com
Christof Demont-Heinrich is founder, creator andeditor of SolarChargedDriving.Com, which he launched in September 2009.SolarChargedDriving.Com is a unique site devoted to covering andpromoting the synergy between solar energy and EVs (electric vehicles)and PHEVs (plug in hybrid electric vehicles). In addition to offeringreaders a mix of how-to information, news feature and newswire coverage, and news analysis, SolarChargedDriving.Com is an interactive community: Readers can create their own blogs, post pictures and video, createtheir own photo and video galleries, and meet other solar-chargeddrivers online. A journalism professor at the University of Denver (DU), Demont-Heinrich is a lifelong environmentalist who loves to bird, hike, camp, and bike. Articles l Homepage