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Maybe. If they had no oil they would be a solar superpower. But its more than just the solar plants that they need, they need transmission facilities to their

by pm24601 11y ago

Maybe. If they had no oil they would be a solar superpower. But its more than just the solar plants that they need, they need transmission facilities to their customers outside the kingdom. My prediction is simply this: The oil will run out, the cash will run out, and the kingdom will collapse. They have no cultural understanding of saving for the future. Contrast that with Norway and the way Norway has managed their oil revenue. http://www.rferl.org/content/what-can-norway-teach-other-oil-rich-countries/26713453.html http://www.rferl.org/content/what-can-norway-teach-other-oil... By the time, Saudi Arabia discovers that the move to solar is not optional - all the other countries in the region will have moved to solar or renewable because those countries have no choice.

rsync 11y ago
"My prediction is simply this: The oil will run out, the cash will run out, and the kingdom will collapse." Obligatory Syriana clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o
g1080 11y ago
Saudis running out of money is the silver lining around the ominous cloud of peak oil !
- themartorana 11y ago
  Why? Further destabilization in the Middle East is desirable? It's likely Saudi Arabia is a wolf in sheep's clothing - sold to the American people as an ally - but actually terrible in everything from human rights to funding of radical groups. You know, with friends like this... Still, it's not like the rest of the region is in the best of shape. What good could come of 30m people being dropped into abject poverty with no hope?
aaron695 11y ago
> They have no cultural understanding of saving for the future. This is nonsense, Norway is an odd one out, barely any other countries save for the future. It's Norway that's culturally not normal. > By the time, Saudi Arabia discovers that the move to solar is not optional. There's enough cheap fossil fuels on planet earth to last pretty much forever so this also has no meaning, unless you're talking about other countries invading them if they keep using fossil fuels? Even if all the other countries refused to sell them fossil fuels, I'd find it hard to believe after the oil runs out in such a huge reserve there are no other cheap alternatives locally like gas.
sdrothrock 11y ago
> they need transmission facilities to their customers outside the kingdom. Just idle thought -- it would be interesting if they turned into the "big battery capital of the Middle East/Eurasia/the world," with electric cars etc. on the rise.
pjc50 11y ago
Saudis are major overseas investors. They have a serious problem that, on the scale of trillions of dollars of cumulative oil income, there isn't anywhere safe to put that quantity of savings. However, these savings are "personal" savings of the monarchy, because it's not a free country. The population have been bought off for the time being, and told that an especially patriarchal flavour of Islam is better than western freedom. But fundamentally it's a country that relies on importing food and desalinating water, so as the fields deplete they need to be careful not to turn into Yemen.
dagw 11y ago
they need transmission facilities to their customers outside the kingdom. Not necessarily, there are lots of industrial processes that become very attractive if electricity is plentiful and essentially free. Look at Norway again. Before they had oil two of their major exports was artificial fertilizer and later aluminium. Both these products required huge amounts of electricity to make and Norway had lots of cheap hydroelectricity. So instead of trying to export electricity, they built huge factories next to the power plants and exported the aluminium and fertilizer produced in these factories instead.

by pm24601 11y ago

rsync 11y ago

"My prediction is simply this: The oil will run out, the cash will run out, and the kingdom will collapse." Obligatory Syriana clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcaIA9SU7o

g1080 11y ago

Saudis running out of money is the silver lining around the ominous cloud of peak oil !

themartorana 11y ago
Why? Further destabilization in the Middle East is desirable? It's likely Saudi Arabia is a wolf in sheep's clothing - sold to the American people as an ally - but actually terrible in everything from human rights to funding of radical groups. You know, with friends like this... Still, it's not like the rest of the region is in the best of shape. What good could come of 30m people being dropped into abject poverty with no hope?

aaron695 11y ago

> They have no cultural understanding of saving for the future. This is nonsense, Norway is an odd one out, barely any other countries save for the future. It's Norway that's culturally not normal. > By the time, Saudi Arabia discovers that the move to solar is not optional. There's enough cheap fossil fuels on planet earth to last pretty much forever so this also has no meaning, unless you're talking about other countries invading them if they keep using fossil fuels? Even if all the other countries refused to sell them fossil fuels, I'd find it hard to believe after the oil runs out in such a huge reserve there are no other cheap alternatives locally like gas.

sdrothrock 11y ago

> they need transmission facilities to their customers outside the kingdom. Just idle thought -- it would be interesting if they turned into the "big battery capital of the Middle East/Eurasia/the world," with electric cars etc. on the rise.

pjc50 11y ago

Saudis are major overseas investors. They have a serious problem that, on the scale of trillions of dollars of cumulative oil income, there isn't anywhere safe to put that quantity of savings. However, these savings are "personal" savings of the monarchy, because it's not a free country. The population have been bought off for the time being, and told that an especially patriarchal flavour of Islam is better than western freedom. But fundamentally it's a country that relies on importing food and desalinating water, so as the fields deplete they need to be careful not to turn into Yemen.

dagw 11y ago

they need transmission facilities to their customers outside the kingdom. Not necessarily, there are lots of industrial processes that become very attractive if electricity is plentiful and essentially free. Look at Norway again. Before they had oil two of their major exports was artificial fertilizer and later aluminium. Both these products required huge amounts of electricity to make and Norway had lots of cheap hydroelectricity. So instead of trying to export electricity, they built huge factories next to the power plants and exported the aluminium and fertilizer produced in these factories instead.