First smart 8.64 kW BIPV in a building in Awali Town at Kingdom of Bahrain

The performance of 18 months of 86.4 kW smart PV solar panels integrated in a building in Sadeem Building at Awali Town (middle of a desert area) in the kingdom of Bahrain is reported herein. The PV system covers an area of 59 m(2) (36 PV panels) and was installed on a roof titled by 25 degrees and facing 225 degrees (45 degrees west of south). The panels are cleaned by sweet water every 2 months and it requires around 500 l of the water for the total panels installed on the roof each cycle (i.e. 14 l/Panel). The records show that the annual generated solar electricity from this system (8.64 kW) in 2015 was 8879 kW h and the expected energy set by producer (Petra solar) was 11,990 kWh while it was expected to be 13,485.7 kWh (according to NREL PVWatt Calculator) and 14,137.0 kWh. These results indicate that the installation produced solar electricity less than the expected by 26.0%, 34.2% and 37.2%, respectively. Surprisingly, the total solar electricity actually gained in 6 months (January to June) in 2015 was 4471 kWh, while the total solar electricity actually gained in 6 months (January to June) in 2016 was 5519 kWh. The payback for this BIPV Sadeem Building will be 624 years, while if feed-in- tariff is set to purchase each 1 kWh solar electricity for 380 fils (about USD1) then the payback will be reasonable (about 5 years). This reaches to the conclusion that either the government sells the PV system with a highly subsidized rate or purchases each kWh of solar electricity at not less than USD1. Assuming that each kWh results in emitting about 1 kg of CO2, then this BIPV saves, annually, the emission of about 9 t of CO2.