Electricity Minister receives UN official

Manama, Sept. 25 (BNA): Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Dr. Abdulhussain Mirza received United Nations resident Coordinator Amin Al-Sharqawi. The two discussed the implementation of the national plan for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Dr. Mirza said the Sustainable Energy Centre of the Electricity and Water Authority had made great strides under the guidance and attention of Bahrain’s wise leadership and had made big achievements. The minister said there was constant progress but there is still some time left to reach the desired goals. This includes the introduction of 5 per cent of renewable energy in the total energy mix by the year 2025, and 6 per cent by 2030. Al Sharqawi said Bahrain is keen to adopt policies for the transformation of renewable energy sources, and praised the active role of Dr. Mirza and the Sustainable Energy Centre in pushing some of the current projects to the implementation stage such as the government green procurement guide and the project to identify energy management systems for government buildings, which will contribute to increasing the efficiency of government institutions and provide energy consumption rates between 20 and 30 per cent. He said Bahrain has worked on the formulation and adoption of the National Renewable Energy Plan (NREAP) and the National Energy Efficiency Plan (NEEAP) and has set national targets to achieve them by 2025.