Shams 1 is one of the largest CSP projects in the world and by far the largest solar plant in a fossil fuel reliant region that lags far behind much of Europe, the Americas and Asia in renewable energy.

“The region is faced with meeting its rising demand for energy, while also working to reduce its carbon footprint,” Masdar Chief Executive Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said in a statement to mark the opening of the plant.

The UAE’s richest emirate is targeting 7 percent of electricity from alternative sources by 2020. By comparison, that goal was exceeded by 21 of the 27 EU member states four years ago.

Despite vast expanses of empty desert and intense year-round sunshine, solar energy has struggled to take off in the Gulf where heavily subsidized fossil fuel makes green investments less attractive than in countries that subsidies renewables and tax fuels.

Shams 1 capacity, which is 10 times larger than the next largest plant in the country, is enough to supply 20,000 UAE homes and will be especially useful for meeting peak demand on hot summer days.

By comparison, Germany and Spain have installed many thousands of megawatts over the last few years, and India has built over 1,200 MW of solar power.

This imbalance in global green investment could be changing, as economic woes limit European spending on expensive green technologies and as wealthy oil and gas exporting countries of the Gulf try to cut the use of fuels that they could export.

Saudi Arabia, which has said it aims to becoming a major generator of solar power, has built less than 50 MW so far. It has plans to build up to 41,000 MW of solar power over the next 20 years, more than any country has built so far.

“We want the customers to have as much information as we know, when we know it,” said Gregory Knight, vice president of customer services for CenterPoint.

It’s part of what the company calls a Customer Vision Platform, designed by IBM and intended to improve customer relations by culling account information from smart meters and other company systems and making that available to call center operators.

The project builds on the promise of smart meters, which look similar to conventional analog meters but can identify energy consumption in more detail and transmit the information between a home or business and the utility company.

CenterPoint runs the electric transmission and distribution utility in the Houston area, as well as offering natural gas service here and in five other states. It began installing smart meters in Houston in 2009 and finished last year.

But the company hasn’t been able to take advantage of everything smart meters can do, and Knight said the new system will address that.

Michael Valocchi, vice president and global energy and utilities industry leader at IBM, said people increasingly expect to do business on their own terms, whether that means being notified of a service outage by text message or paying a bill electronically.

“The big data and the analytics are there,” he said. “Why shouldn’t I use it to give the consumer a better experience?”

The project will roll out over 18 to 24 months, but Knight said a pilot program being launched now will notify people of power outages in their neighborhoods – by text, email or telephone – and tell them when the outage should be resolved.

He said about 10,000 people will be allowed to enroll in the pilot program.

Eventually, Knight said, customers will be able to designate additional people to be notified in case of an outage – a neighbor for someone who travels a lot, for example, or an adult child who lives across town and helps oversee care for an elderly parent.

Valocchi said the system also will allow operators to access callers’ account information as the call comes in and automatically route it to someone who can offer an explanation and appropriate help.

The system will recognize phone numbers, including cellphone numbers, and call up information, including whether the customer has had recent outages, been late paying a bill or had high bills. All of those situations would be better served by proactive explanations or offers of help, Valocchi said.

Asked about privacy concerns, he said the system only reflects information already provided to CenterPoint.

“We as consumers expect a personal experience,” Valocchi said.

Obama, expanding on an initiative he addressed in his State of the Union speech last month, said the United States must shift its cars and trucks entirely off oil to avoid perpetual fluctuations in gas prices. Citing policies that already require automakers to increase gas mileage, he said he expects that by the middle of the next decade, Americans will only have to fill up their cars half as often.

“We’ve set some achievable but ambitious goals,” Obama said, speaking at Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago. “The only way to break this cycle of spiking gas prices — the only way to break that cycle for good — is to shift our cars entirely, our cars and trucks, off oil.”

Friday’s speech, with its focus on energy, was designed to draw attention to what the White House says is one of Obama’s top agenda items for his second term. That focus, however, has been overshadowed as the administration and Congress work on an immigration overhaul, gun legislation and deficit-reduction measures.

Obama cast his proposal as not only a clean energy plan, but as one meant to create opportunities for economic growth.

“I want the next great job-creating breakthroughs, whether it’s in energy or nanotechnology or bio-engineering , I want those breakthroughs to be right here in the United States of America, creating American jobs and maintaining our technological lead,” he said.

At the pump: Texas retail gasoline prices down 4 cents

Obama spoke from inside Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, a ring-shaped facility a mile and a half around. The facility acts as a giant extra-bright X-ray that allows scientists to look inside objects at the atomic level.

The initiative, proposing to spend $200 million a year on research, would be paid for with revenue from federal oil and gas leases on offshore drilling and would not add to the deficit.

The money would fund research on “breakthrough” technologies such as batteries for electric cars and biofuels made from switch grass or other materials. Researchers also would look to improve use of natural gas as a fuel for cars and trucks.

Obama’s motorcade passed a couple dozen protesters standing in the rain at the Argonne entrance, protesting against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada’s tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The Obama administration is considering whether to clear the project. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force one that “there’s no question” that the types of green energy initiatives the president was talking about at Argonne would have more impact on climate change than whether Keystone is built.

“Thousands of miles of pipelines have been built since President Obama took office inside the United States of America and it hasn’t had a measurable impact on climate change” Earnest said. “But what has had an impact, measurable impact, on climate change has been, for example, the car rule that the president has put in place that has greatly increased fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.”

Inside the national lab, Obama got a firsthand look at some of the cutting-edge vehicle research, including a room that can go to extreme temperatures to test the impact on fuel efficiency. He talked to engineers working on electric car batteries and on an engine that runs on diesel and gasoline to reduce fuel costs.

“We want to keep on funding them,” the president said as he looked at the engine, developed with public and private funding from Chrysler. “That’s what I’m trying to tell Congress.”

Alternative fuels: GM CEO wants feds to back natural gas fueling stations

The proposal is modeled after a plan submitted by a group of business executives and former military leaders who are committed to reducing U.S. oil dependence. The group, called Securing America’s Future Energy, or SAFE, is headed by FedEx Corp. Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith and retired Marine Corps Gen. P.X. Kelley.

Creation of the trust would require congressional approval at a time of partisan divide over energy issues. Republicans have pushed to expand oil and gas drilling on federal land and water, while Obama and many Democrats have worked to boost renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

There were signs agreement may be possible. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has called it “an idea I may agree with.”

Murkowski, senior Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, did not fully endorse the plan, which is similar to one she has proposed to use revenue from drilling for oil and natural gas on public lands that previously were off-limits to energy production to pay for research on new energy technologies.

White House officials said the president’s proposal would not require expansion of drilling to federal lands or water where it is now prohibited. Instead, they are counting on increased production from existing sites, along with efficiencies from an administration plan to streamline drilling permits. The government collects more than $6 billion a year in royalties from production on federal lands and waters.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Obama needs to expand drilling to get his support.

“For this proposal to even be plausible, oil and gas leasing on federal land would need to increase dramatically,” the spokesman, Brendan Buck, said. “Unfortunately, this administration has consistently slowed, delayed and blocked American energy production.”

Obama’s push for the energy trust came as the Environmental Protection Agency released a report Friday indicating that fuel economy standards rose last year by 1.4 miles per gallon, the largest annual increase since EPA started keeping track. The agency said the improvement was due to better availability of high-performing cars and more options for consumers.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers suggested that rather than encouraging research on fuel-efficient cars, the government should focus on making diverse fuels more available and improving transportation infrastructure.