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Sunlight bounces off the mirrors, which concentrate the rays to heat up a specially made liquid to almost 400 degrees Celsius. The scalding oil is then used to generate steam, which turns turbines that create electricity for about 20,000 homes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

For the Gulf's solar industry, 2013 was a year of firsts: In addition to the opening of Abu Dhabi's Shams 1 plant, Dubai's first solar power plant became operational, and Kuwait and Oman decided to build their first as well. In Saudi Arabia, one energy analyst found the cost of generating electricity from solar there had become as cheap as generating electricity from oil-fired power plants.

Saudi's solar goals appear to be the most gung-ho in the region: The kingdom has announced that it plans to throw down $109bn on solar energy and get one-third of its power from the sun by 2032.

source http://www.aljazeera.com/