I don’t think we can meaningfully compare the amount of oil used to make a plastic frame for a solar panel and the amount of fossil fuels being replaced, on a long-term basis, by that panel, though. One of those situations isn’t sufficient to prop up a government. (And that leaves aside the whole bioplastic issue, which can be made out of food waste, if you really wanted to.)
Unless the law is arbitrary, ill-defined and interpreted in unpredictable ways, making arrest under it potentially a completely unforeseeable event until it actually happens. Which is how laws like this work - you don’t know what actions might get you in trouble, so you live in fear and stop yourself from doing anything that might potentially upset the most conservative fundamentalist, just to be safe. So yeah, it’s news - even in Saudi Arabia, it appears.
