RIYADH: The Kingdom endorsed the United Nations call to observe 2015 as the International Year of Light and light-based technologies (IYL 2015) with the “Noor Festival,” illustrating the importance of light and its application in the energy industry.

The IYL 2015 is a global initiative by UNESCO which aims to highlight the importance of light and optical technologies in our lives, our future and for the development of society, and aims to inspire, educate and connect on a global scale.

UNESCO declared IYL in order to highlight the importance of raising global awareness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and offer solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.

King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE), Riyadh recently hosted the Noor Festival coinciding with the IYL 2015 initiative with a focus on light science and its applications, a K.A.CARE official said Thursday.

He said that the festival included various activities and workshops on energy and its uses in innovative ways, combining learning and fun exploration. “The aim of the festival was to illustrate the importance of light and its application in the field of energy,” he underlined.

Moreover, the atlas of renewable resources project of the K.A.CARE was introduced during the activities of the festival, which demonstrated a monitoring station that measures solar radiation and special data screens to view different data directly from monitoring stations.