National Energy Strategy Bapco Energies is spearheading the development of a national energy strategy, aiming to optimize the utilization of national resources and paving the way for a low carbon future in alignment with Bahrain’s net-zero targets. The strategy focuses on Bapco Energies’ transformation from a conventional oil and gas company into a more diversified energy entity, incorporating various decarbonization options like carbon capture, utilization, and storage.
Renewable Energy
Through the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP), Bahrain aims to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix. The Plan includes the implementation of solar and wind energy projects and aims to generate 5 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025, further increasing it to 20 percent by 2035. The NREAP also laid the foundation to encourage household participation in the push towards renewable energy usage. In 2021, the Electricity and Water Authority launched the Net Metering System which allows consumers to generate their own power from renewable energy for self-consumption and to feed the excess into the national grid, earning an energy credit on their electricity and water invoice. In addition, the Government launched its National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) in 2017, which set 22 initiatives to promote energy efficiency practices across various sectors and led to changing all government lights to LED, initiating the process of moving to solar energy, issuing regulations for district cooling, and issuing building recommendations.
Electric Vehicles
In 2021, the Kingdom issued the “Electric Vehicles Technical Regulation”, to promote and adopt green transport in Bahrain. In 2023, the Ministry of Electricity and Water Affairs awarded a contract for the development of an electric vehicle (EV) strategy for the Kingdom. The Ministry has also awarded a contract for the installation of five electric vehicle charging stations across the Kingdom.