We’re finally starting to see it happen–Middle Eastern nations are acknowledging that they don’t want their energy policies completely tied to fossil fuels. The Saudi government signed an agreement this week with SunEdison to explore building a solar panel factory in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It would be a $6.4 billion plant that would process polysilicon into wafers and ultimately cells and modules.

In January the Middle East Solar Energy Association came out with an ambitious projection, stating that the region would spend $50 billion on solar over the next 7 years. As the price of oil and natural gas rises it becomes very punitive for Middle Eastern nations to divert valuable fossil fuels to power generation when that fuel could be exported for major export revenue. And as solar drops in cost, it gets very attractive to consider bringing in solar power for a land that has such good solar radiation.

With many developing markets the challenge for panel makers and installers is timing. Go in too early and the development opportunities aren’t there. Too late and one enters a more competitive space. So much in the Middle East depends on the behavior of government surrounding decisions on how to generate power. But should the governments move to diversify power generation, it could turn out to be a very hot market.