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The wind turbines on Bahrain's iconic building, Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC), are expected to be fully operational by mid-December in celebration of the kingdom's National Day.
However, they will be turning only 50 per cent of the time due to variable wind levels and general maintenance requirements, revealed a company spokesman.
The complete adjoining Moda Mall and 87 per cent of the accommodation in the towers have been leased to tenants. She added: "The BWTC is operational now, with office tenants moving in and some already doing business from their new offices.
"Also, Moda Mall is seeing new tenants open every month and has brought individual brand boutiques to Bahrain for the first time such as Fendi, Dior, Louis Vuitton, D&G and many more.
"By the first quarter of 2009, we expect that everyone will be moved in and functioning in the office towers, and that the majority of the mall tenants would have moved and started trading by the end of this year."
BWTC was recently named the 'Best Tall Building' in the Middle East and Africa region for 2008 by the world's leading body dedicated to the field of tall buildings, The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), at an awards ceremony held in Chicago, US.
Designed and engineered by Atkins, it is the world's first commercial building to harness wind power for energy with the incorporation of large-scale wind turbines. Three 29m diameter wind turbines will generate up to 15 per cent of the two towers' electrical requirements.
The 2008 'Best Tall Building Awards' recognise projects that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and that achieve sustainability at the highest and broadest level.
With only four building awards made annually, the BWTC is firmly establishing the GCC's prominence in international standards of architecture, as other winners included Renzo Piano's The New York Times Building (Americas region), Norman Foster's 51 Lime Street in London (European region), and Kohn Pedersen Fox's Shanghai World Financial Center (Asia/Australasia region).
