Israel touts some of the world’s best solar technology advances, but its Middle East neighbor Dubai, says it is planning to set up the region’s largest solar energy manufacturing plant. They are expected to start producing by the last quarter in 2010, and will manufacture photovoltaic panels that can generate 130 megawatts of power annually.

The building plans call for a 1 million square foot plant, with solar panels to be produced as big as 5.7sqm. Similar plants will be built in China, Mexico and Bulgaria. The announcement was made during this week’s Green Dubai World Forum 2008.

According to the Khaleej Times, it will be the Middle East’s largest solar panel plant, and it will be located in Dubai’s Technopark. The intent to build the solar plant came with the announcement that that UAE intends to adopt green building legislation, the first of its kind in the world. Dubai hopes to become a sustainable building pioneer, and has started incorporating green building practices into new projects since the beginning of 2008.

Dilip Rahulan, the CEO of Solar Technologies said: “The energy from sunlight striking the Earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to the global energy consumption for a whole year. The mission of Solar Technologies is to accelerate the adoption of solar photo-voltaic by rapidly expanding manufacturing capacity and significantly reducing the cost of solar modules through innovations and manufacturing excellence.

“We intend to become one of the largest solar photo-voltaic module manufacturing units in the world over a period of time.”