Potential of making—Over to sustainable buildings in the Kingdom of Bahrain

Abstract Two unique large buildings in the Kingdom of Bahrain were selected for make-over to sustainable buildings. These are the Almoayyed Tower (the first sky scraper) and the Bahrain International Circuit, BIC (The best world Formula 1 Circuit). The amount of electricity extracted from using renewable energy resource (solar and wind), integrated to the buildings—has been studied thoroughly. For the first building, the total solar electricity from the PV installed at the roof and the 4 vertical facades was found 3 017 500 kWh annually (3 million kWh), i.e. daily energy of 8219 kWh (enough to supply electricity for 171 houses, each is rated as 2 kW house—in Europe the standard is 1.2 kW). This means that the annual solar electricity produced will be nearly 3 million kWh. This correspond to annual CO 2 reduction of 3000 t (assuming each kWh of energy from natural gas lead to emission of 1 kg of CO 2 ). For the second building (BIC) the solar electricity from PV panels installed at the roof top, fixed at tilt angle of 26° facing south, will provide annual solar electricity of is 2.8 × 10 6  kWh. The solar electricity from PV panels installed on the windows (12,000 m 2 ) will be 45.3 × 10 6  kWh. This means that the total annual electrical power from PV panels (windows and roofs) will be nearly 12 MW (32 kW per day). The CO 2 reduction will be 48,000 t. Under the carbon trading or CDM scheme the revenue (or the reward) would be €480,000 million annually (the reward is €10 per tonnes of CO 2 ). The BIC circuit can have diversified electricity supply, i.e. from solar radiation (PV), from solar heat (CSP) and from wind (wind turbines), assuring its sustainability as well as reducing the CO 2 emission.