Petra Solar Completes the Middle East’s Largest Smart Solar Project in Bahrain

On Jun 25, 2014

Petra Solar™, a fully owned subsidiary of South Plainfield-based Petra Systems, a leading global technology provider for the renewable energy, energy efficiency, and distributed power generation markets, announced today that it, along with its partner Caspian Renewable Energy, Inc., has successfully completed the installation of the largest Smart Solar power plant in the Middle East.

The five-megawatt (MW) project will be owned by BAPCO (Bahrain Petroleum Company), a wholly owned subsidiary of NOGA (National Oil and Gas Authority) and will deliver in excess of 8,000 MWh of clean renewable energy. In real terms this capacity will present an energy offset of 67,000 Mcf of natural gas and a savings of 6,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Inaugurated June 25th at the historic Awali Township, the 5MW BAPCO project marks the first phase of the “Let Bahrain Shine” initiative, a consortium led initiative to assist the Kingdom of Bahrain meet up to 10% of its energy demands by 2010 through clean renewable energy.

“BAPCO is very excited about this project, being the first of its kind in the Middle East, it will be a proud showcase,” said Adel Almoayyed, CEO of BAPCO. “We expect that this project will be the first step in Bahrain’s march towards a solar future.”

As part of Let Bahrain Shine, Petra Solar, along with its partner Caspian Renewable Energy, will continue to partner closely with key Bahraini stakeholders such as BAPCO, NOGA, the University of Bahrain, and others to make Bahrain the Middle East’s hub for solar power technology and innovation.

“In addition to the technological value created as a result of this bilateral cooperation, this project marks an important milestone in the public-private partnership between Bahrain and the United States,” said M. Marty Youssefiani, Chief Executive of the Washington DC based Caspian Renewable Energy, Inc. “Our consortium’s commitment to the Kingdom is long-term, multi-faceted and will be including investment tracks in the field of R+D and manufacturing to firmly position Bahrain as the region’s standard bearer of smart, clean energy.”

The BAPCO installation leverages Petra Solar’s SunWave Microinverter, one of the world’s most field-tested and proven inverter build block solutions. SunWave comes complete with advanced capabilities such as real and reactive power generation and control, revenue grade metering, panel level health monitoring and diagnostics, grid health monitoring, and bi-directional wireless communications.

“The completion of this BAPCO project marks a significant and exciting moment for us and our partners in Bahrain,” said Steve Rhoades, Chief Executive Officer of Petra Systems. “The installation demonstrates the evolution of solar power generation from passive power systems to dynamic and intelligent generation, sensing, and control assets that provides valuable insight into grid health and can be used to improve grid quality. We are honored to be a part of a project of this importance to Bahrain and look forward to continuing to help Bahrain become a world leader in solar innovation.”