K.A.Care’s answer to this challenge is to put financial and technical support behind the development of alternative energy resources, including an ambitious target of generating up to 41 gigawatts of energy, or one third of future supply, from solar plants by 2032.

“We need to provide encouragement and investment behind these new initiatives,” Hashim Yamani, president of K.A.Care, said in an e-mailed statement. “In Saudi Arabia, we are taking big steps in the areas of renewable and atomic energy for these reasons.”

K.A.Care’s plan to harness sunshine to generate the same amount of energy in 20 years as is produced today through traditional methods is a pricey undertaking that will cost more than $100 billion. Yet on Sept. 17, the kingdom announced plans to spend $109 billion in the solar energy sector alone, proving that oil producing economies in the Gulf are taking renewable energy very seriously.

“Some entities bad-mouth renewable energy and say that it’s too expensive,” Bill Richardson, the former U.S. energy secretary, said in an e-mail comment last month. “But oil production is finite and susceptible to volatile pricing in a way that makes it even more important to add alternative sources to an existing energy mix, the way Masdar has done quite effectively.”

Since its inception in 2006, Masdar has been a pioneer in the field, investing heavily in projects aimed at diversifying the U.A.E.’s economy away from oil dependence.

Local projects include the 100-megawatt Shams One solar plant in the Emirates, while global initiatives include a solar plant in Tonga, a clean-energy initiative in Afghanistan that will provide 600 households in eight isolated villages with solar power and, in Spain, the world’s first power plant capable of generating 24 hours of uninterrupted solar power.

These investments are all part of an effort by Abu Dhabi to reach a goal of having 7 percent of energy use derived from alternative sources by 2020, according to analysts.

Now, it seems, Saudi Arabia is looking to do the same.

“The energy mix approach that Masdar encouraged from the start is very important for the sustainable development of the region, especially as our economies and populations grow,” said Mr. Al Jaber of Masdar. “The Saudi initiatives now will have a spillover impact, not just on their economy, but on the regional economy as well as the industry itself.”