Today is the closing day of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi and it got me thinking that the received view and prognosis about the Middle East might well turn out to be mistaken.

I know that amongst Energy Hawks, there's a calcified view that militant islam/terrorism will only be defeated when certain oil states in the Middle East stop funding it because we all stop funding them and start using low carbon energy. This is the theme of Robert Zubrin's book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil  and frequently, a view shared by NY Times columnist, particulary on Iran, Thomas L. Friedman.

It's just that with all the turmoil in the markets, we may be losing sight of who's got the money and the big financial power shift underway from West to East. The best short report to read on this was recently produced by the McKinsey Global Institute - The New Power Brokers: how Oil, Asia, Hedge Funds and Private Equity are Shaping Global Capital Markets - and it is well worth a read.

That's why I was very interested to learn of Solar Millenium AG setting up a joint venture with Ferrostaal AG in Dubai, in order to exploit an anticipated boom in Concentrated Solar Power. Clearly, they project many future customers as coming from that region of the world. As they see it;

'The Middle East will be a key player for the solar energy market in the foreseeable future'.

MAN Solar Millennium made its first regional public appearance at the World Future Energy Summit Exhibition mentioned above and it would be interesting to know what kind of reception they got. Just as Russia plans to massively expand its nuclear power programme to extend the lifetime of its oil and gas reserves, you just might start to see Middle Eastern states doing the same with Concentrated Solar Power.