:1 ELSEVIER Applied Energy 50 (1995) 23 30 © 1995 Elsevier Science Limited Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0306-2619/95/$9.50 Renewable Energy Resources in the State of Bahrain W. E. Alnaser Department of Physics, University of Bahrain, PO Box 32038, Bahrain ABSTRA CT The annual average long-term solar potential on a horizontal surface in Bahra& was found to be 408 Win:. The annual mean daily w&d power density is 66.2 Wm :. Tidal power is at a maximum in September and March and reaches 0.339 and 0.340 Wm : respectively. The water current power in Bahrain was estimated to be nearly 552 Wm :. This paper highlights the advantages and the disadvantages of adopting each type of such renewable technology. INTRODUCTION The population of Bahrain (and the world) is increasing and therefore electricity consumption for domestic use is rising accordingly. For example, domestic electricity consumption in 1990 in Bahrain reached 1.8 GWh. In 1993 the population was nearly half a million. This prompted the government to increase the annual production of electricity to almost 4000 million kWh. Oil production on the other hand has decreased. In 1970, Bahrain produced almost 30 million barrels while by 1990 produc- tion had halved to only 15 million barrels. This underlines the urgency of exploiting renewable energy resources. The state of Bahrain is located centrally on the southern shores of the Arabian Gulf between latitudes 25 ° 32' and 26 ° 20' N, and longitudes 50° 20' and 50° 50' E. The state comprises a group of 36 islands, with a total land area of about 700 km 2. The largest of these is Bahrain, where the capital city Manama is situated. This island accounts for nearly 85% of the total land area. There are many non-depleting energy resources available to humanity. Globally, the resource base of these renewable energies is extremely large. Thus the potential for utilizing such renewable energy should not be underestimated. 23