Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) opened a trio of solar charging stations intended to service electric vehicles and solar-electric powered industrial Personnel Carriers (PCs) used to convey workers around the aluminium smelter’s campus.
The three solar charging stations are expected to save the firm up to 110 thousand KWhr each year, which translates to a drop of up to 42 metric tons of CO2 per annum. The stations all have battery storage systems that allows for charging in the evening. They are also connected to Alba’s energy grid, which will supply the rest of the plant with renewably-generated power.
Also part of the project is the addition of three solar-electric powered PCs that will be used throughout the campus. The three PCs are projected to save up to 9.9 liters each every day and will combine to reduce Alba’s carbon emissions by about 25 metric tons per year.
Alba’s CEO Ali Al Baqali, said in a press release that the new power stations are part of a wider push to attaining net-zero carbon emissions.
“The transition to carbon neutrality is not only a moral imperative but also a prime objective of Alba’s ESG Roadmap in line with the Kingdom’s Net Zero Emissions by 2060.”
“We are proud to be leading the way in the Kingdom with being the first Company to use Solar-Electric powered industrial Personnel Carriers to promote sustainable development on all fronts,” he continued.
Alba is one of the largest industrial companies in the Middle East and is the world’s biggest aluminium smelter outside the People’s Republic of China. Originally incorporated in 1968, the company is based in Bahrain and 84% of its total workforce are Bahraini nationals. It began operations in 1971 with a 120,000 metric ton annual capacity. Modernization bumped the output up to 450,000 metric tons in 1992. In the spring of 2005, Alba opened Line 5, raising output by 860,000 metric tons per year. In 2022 Alba’s smelter produced 1,600,111 metric tons of primary aluminium.
