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Solar panels shading a car park in Awali.

Hybrid power plant work set to start in Bahrain

MANAMA, October 7, 2014

The work on a hybrid power plant for solar and wind energy in southern Bahrain is expected to start in the next three months.

The 5-MW pilot station will be built on land covering 120,000 sq m near Al Dur Power and Water Plant, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

It is part of efforts by the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) to develop renewable energy sources and will be linked to Bahrain's power-distribution grid by the first quarter of 2015.

A tender has already been issued and a company specialising in renewable energy plants will be awarded the project before the end of the year, said Minister of State for Electricity and Water Affairs Dr Abdulhussain Mirza.

"The project is well underway to build a combined solar and wind electricity production pilot plant with an installed capacity of around five megawatts," he told the GDN.

"This initiative was derived based on detailed technical studies which was carried out by a consultancy firm from Germany (Fichtner) over the past one year to assess the viability of solar and wind power applications in Bahrain.

"The solar portion will be based on PV (photovoltaic) and will be rated at around 3MW, while the wind portion will be around 2MW.

"A tender for this project was issued to pre-qualified contractors that have the prerequisite expertise in solar and wind combination, and the tender evaluation is underway and expected to be completed soon.

"Hence the project is expected to be awarded before the end of this year.

"A land has been allocated south of Al Dur plant with an area of around 120,000-sq-m to build the pilot plant."

Dr Mirza said that the National Oil and Gas Authority (NOGA) in conjunction with the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) have also been working on their own solar initiatives.

"NOGA in conjunction with Bapco also have their own initiative for solar power generation using PV solar panels. This is distributed in three locations; Awali, Bahrain Refinery and Bahrain University," he stated.

This project, he said, is almost 100 per cent complete and is connected to the high voltage distribution network at the three locations.

"EWA had a major role in ensuring that the distribution locations are available for the connection of the solar power generation and also in agreeing the framework for the energy generation," said Dr Mirza.

The three locations have energy metering systems and have been fully integrated into a smart grid, which gives dynamic feedback on the power generation using remote Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada).

Solar panels have already been installed in nine locations across Bahrain which are connected to six feeding points with an estimated capacity of around 1,600 KW.

The GDN had reported last month that solar-powered streetlights could soon be rolled out across Bahrain if a pilot project in Muharraq proves successful.

The EWA is currently monitoring a test phase, involving 20 solar panel-equipped lights in Hidd, to evaluate the project's feasibility. Designed to operate independently from each other and the national power grid, each streetlight is a stand-alone unit that derives its power entirely from the sun, the report added.- TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Bahrain | Energy | solar | hybrid | plant | Wind |

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