Masdar City

Masdar is a definite thing to know about for anyone in the Middle East hoping for big-scale change in the region.

Masdar is a government-funded initiative to bring future clean energy to the region. The city they're building is one that finally caters to all those saying "we're in a desert, why aren't we using solar energy?!". Not only is it apparently going to be the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste, car-free city in the world, they're also planning on building the Middle East's largest solar power plant (I wonder where the others are, if any?). Planned to be producing power by the end of 2009, they're currently testing out solar energy options from U.S., Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and German companies to see which products will work best in the desert climate.
The city will be able to house residents! I'm SO buying a place there. By September of this year, 100 students and professors of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (developed in cooperation with MIT) will be moving into the residences.
The frosting on the cake is that Abu Dhabi hosted the second annual World Future Energy Summit where this was all announced.

Masdar itself is BUSY!
They've already signed a contract with the TDIC to develop a sustainable system for a nature reserve and resort. TDIC are the ones developing Saadiyat Islands which will have a number of iconic museums including a Louvre.
They also invest in a lot of foreign projects, including offshore wind parks to be built in the UK.