Petra Solar™, a global technology provider for the renewable energy, energy efficiency, and distributed power generation markets, announced 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 5MW 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. The 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.

“We expect that this project will be the first step in Bahrain’s march towards a solar future,” said Adel Almoayyed, CEO of BAPCO.

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 a 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 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 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,” said Steve Rhoades, Chief Executive Officer of Petra Systems.