The Kingdom has joined scientific projects in the studies of sun with Japan and Peru to monitor the movement of sunrise and sunset daily on Earth through King Saud University in Riyadh by using the solar telescope (the Flare Monitoring Telescope "FMT") with Kyoto University in Japan and Iowa University in Peru, South America, in order to monitor any changes that may occur on the surface of the sun and have an impact on the Earth. With regard to the Kingdom's attention of the sun's energy, its story dates back to 38 years ago, when the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud inaugurated in 1980, when he was the Governor of Riyadh Region, the Research Plant of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Uyayna which is the first scientific and productive plant in the Kingdom known as the "Solar Village Project" to provide electricity with a capacity of 350 kilowatts to Uyayna, Jubaila and rural center near Riyadh. The solar village is considered the first solar power plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Saudi-US partnership to produce 350 kilowatts through the use of concentrated photovoltaic complexes. --SPA 16:06 LOCAL TIME 13:06 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w654919