It was revealed, that the Dubai Municipality will build a sustainable residential city for Emirate residents, powered by solar energy. The future for Dubai seems bright and eco-friendly as Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai ruler and the UAE's Vice President and Prime Minister, was briefed on the new residential project, 'Dubai Smart Sustainable City'. The project will be built close by to the Al Aweer Roundabout in Dubai and accommodate around 160,000 people over a total area of 5660 hectares. The city will be "completely sustainable" according to Dawood Al Hajeri, manager of planning and engineering sector department. It will produce 200 megawatts from solar panels covering the roofs of residential units and other buildings in its area. The city will recycle over 40,000 cubic meters of water, and that it will be fully sustainable and self-supporting in terms of its resources, transport and most importantly its energy. The work on the 'Dubai Smart Sustainable City' will start immediately and is expected to finish by Dubai's expo time of 2020.

India has pledged to build the world's most powerful solar plant. With a nominal capacity of 4,000 megawatts, comparable to that of four full-size nuclear reactors, the "Ultra-Mega Green Solar Power Project" will be more than ten times larger than any other solar project built so far, and it will spread over 77 square kilometers of land - greater than the island of Manhattan. The first phase of the project, which will be for 1,000 megawatt capacity, is expected to be completed in three years. Six state-owned companies have formed a joint venture to execute the project, which they say can be completed in 7 years at a projected cost of US$ 4.4 billion. The proposed location is near Sambhar Salt Lake in the northern state of Rajasthan. The solar photovoltaic power plant will have an estimated life of 25 years and is expected to supply 6.4 billion kilowatt-hours per year, according to official figures. It could help to reduce India's carbon dioxide emissions by more than 4 million tons per year, estimates Parimita Mohanty, a fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi. India currently has a grid-connected solar-power capacity of 2,208 MW - up from a mere 17.8 MW in 2010, when the central government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The JNNSM aims for India to reach an installed capacity of 20,000 MW (or 20 gig watts) of solar power by 2022.

At long last, the world's largest solar bridge at London's Blackfriars station is finally complete. Solarcentury and England's Network Rail partnered to cover the bridge with 4,400 photovoltaic panels. Formerly an energy hog, the bridge now provides Blackfriars station with half of the energy it requires to operate. Work on the world's largest solar bridge formally began on October 2011. The Blackfriars solar bridge stretches across the River Thames, transporting thousands of commuters every day from South London out of one of the busiest stations in the city. The station already accommodates electric trains, which make public transportation even greener, but with the new solar bridge is expected to make the station even more sustainable. First Capital Connect, which runs Blackfriars, estimates that the 4,400 photovoltaic panels will divert 511 tons of carbon emissions each year, drastically reducing the station's carbon footprint. Aside from providing renewable energy to the station, the Blackfriars Bridge will also serve as a symbol of London's quest to be a more sustainable city. The photovoltaic panels can be seen from both sides of the river, inviting tourists and locals to think about renewable energy. Solarcentury designed the bridge to incorporate the panels every step of the way, making a point that renewable energy is not an afterthought. Instead, it comprises a crucial element of the design.

The largest solar power plant in Japan has just been launched. The Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant is situated just offshore in Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. Kagoshima City, in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, is one of the few areas in Japan where the sky is clear around 40 days and is perfect for solar energy collection and generation. The Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Plant is 1.27 million square meters of solar panels - 290thousand of them, to be exact - which will be able to generate 70 megawatts of power, able to supply electricity for about 22 thousand local households, making it the biggest solar generation plant in Japan. The solar plant was developed by Kyocera Corporation in partnership with 6 other companies, and the power generated by the new plant will be sold to the national grid through a local power utility. The development of this substantial solar project was helped along by Japan's updated feed-in-tarriff program. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster the program was upgraded to encourage an increasing amount of solar energy. The updated program requires power utilities to buy all of the power generated by solar power plants that produce over 10 kilowatts of electricity. The floating solar power plant includes an adjacent "tour facility", which is open to the public. It has a elevated, circular room for viewing the 290 thousand solar panels, as well as panoramic views of the bay with Sakurajima volcano in the background. The tour facility also displays educational information about environmental issues and solar power. According to Kyocera, as well as making money, it is hoped that the whole project will help to "foster a deeper understanding of renewable energy and further facilitate a low-carbon society".

Israel is blessed with abundant sunshine and has long been a pioneer in solar energy. With construction starting in early 2014 on a 121 Megawatt solar power station, the country will be taking a big step in achieving its goal of producing 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Ashalim power plant will be located in the Negev desert near Kibbutz Ashalim south of the city of Be'er Sheva, and when it's completed in 2016 it will be the biggest solar power station in Israel with enough capacity to power 40 thousand homes. The new solar station is being developed by Megalim Solar Power - a joint venture between U.S. based solar power company Brightsource Energy and French power and transport company Alstom. Brightsource originally started in Israel as a company called Luz, so the Ashalim power plant will be a homecoming of sorts. In addition to breaking ground on the US$ 1.1 billion solar thermal plant in Israel, Brightsource is developing the world's largest solar thermal plant - a 377 Megawatt solar farm in California's Mojave desert called Ivanpah. Brightsource solar thermal plants deploy heliostat mirrors that direct sunlight to solar power towers that create steam to drive turbines. The BrightSource-Alstom Megalim plant is one of three projects at the Ashalim site, which will generate 250 MW of electricity at full capacity - that's enough to cover 2.5 percent of Israeli energy consumption. When all three projects are online, Ashalim will become the fifth largest solar power station in the world.