Bahrain World Trade Centre, located in Manama, is the only skyscraper in the world to have built-in wind turbines in its structure. Designed by the UK’s Atkins, the structure has two towers linked by three skybridges. The building is 240 metres high, with a wind turbine on the outside of each skybridge, built and installed by Denmark’s Norwin A/S.

The scheme cost about $150m to develop; the main contract was awarded to the local Nass Group and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts in 2004. Each tower is 44 storeys high, and used mainly as office space. The building also contains a Sheraton hotel, owned by the US’ Marriott International, as well as a shopping mall with a leasable area of 16,500 square metres.

Bahrain World Trade Centre is designed to funnel wind blowing in off the Gulf towards its turbines, which are intended to provide 11-15 per cent of the building’s power needs when running. They have a capacity of 225kW each. However, the turbines were not commissioned until April 2008, 26 months after the main building was completed.

The project was funded partly through Islamic finance. Occupancy of Bahrain World Trade Centre was 81.9 per cent in 2015.