On Monday, September 1, 2008, the lights in Caracas and eight surrounding states in Venezuela went out.

An 800,000-volt transmission line failed, and five gigawatts of power were eliminated from the powergrid. A press report said that Zulia, the Venezuelan state a the heart of the oil industry, was “the state most affected by the blackout.”

Now, the national power company, Corpoelec says it will spend $13 billion in power investments for thermo and hydro plants. More than 30 new projects are expected to be funded.

Transmission and distribution networks will account for roughly half the number of new projects. But there are some rumors of diversification in the OPEC member’s power generation. In fact, Menpet, Venezuela’s energy and oil ministry, has installed 779 solar panel systems and is planning a solar panel factory.

And last year, Chavez said he would use oil money to build an offshore wind farm on the Caribbean coast.

Turns out, Venezuela is not alone when it comes to renewable energy investments…

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Over the past several months, the investment world has turned its ever-roving eye on the Middle East and North Africa.

Since July, four new exchange traded funds have hit the market focusing on these regions. They are the WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund (GULF:Nasdaq), the Market Vectors Gulf States Index ETF (MES:NYSE), PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio (PMNA:Nasdaq), and the SPDRs S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa ETF (GAF:AMEX).

But the one thing lacking in these ETFs is investments in Iran.

Of course, the U.S. has decreed it will not make investments in Iran, who it considers a state-sponsor of terrorism. That’s nothing to fool around with.

While much of the Western world stands firm by not investing in Iran, other nations, like China and Russia aren’t quite as righteous. Russia has repeatedly stood against strong sanctions in response to Iran’s nuclear program… as has China, but for different reasons. Iran and Russia have a history that goes back to before the Cold War. But China…

Iran is the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, and China, in early December 2007, signed a $2 billion deal with the country to secure oil supplies.

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