diff --git a/packages/bower-config/lib/util/expand.js b/packages/bower-config/lib/util/expand.js
index f3d453fd3..303fadef2 100644
--- a/packages/bower-config/lib/util/expand.js
+++ b/packages/bower-config/lib/util/expand.js
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@ function doEnvReplaceStr (f) {
 
 function envReplace(config) {
     var envReplaced = {};
+    if ( lang.isArray(config) ) {
+        envReplaced = [];
+    }
 
     object.forOwn(config, function (value, key) {
 
@@ -63,6 +66,9 @@ function envReplace(config) {
         if ( lang.isPlainObject(value) ) {
             envReplaced[key] = envReplace(value);
         }
+        else if ( lang.isArray(value) ) {
+            envReplaced[key] = envReplace(value);
+        }
         else if ( lang.isString(value) ) {
             envReplaced[key] = doEnvReplaceStr(value);
         }
diff --git a/packages/bower-config/test/assets/env-variables-values/.bowerrc b/packages/bower-config/test/assets/env-variables-values/.bowerrc
index dae163d47..339447ed9 100644
--- a/packages/bower-config/test/assets/env-variables-values/.bowerrc
+++ b/packages/bower-config/test/assets/env-variables-values/.bowerrc
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@
    },
    "storage" : {
       "packages" : "${_BOWERRC_MY_PACKAGES}",
-      "registry" : "~/.bower-test/registry"
+      "registry" : {
+        "register": "~/.bower-test/registry",
+        "search": [
+          "${_BOWERRC_MY_USER}:${_BOWERRC_MY_PASS}"
+        ]
+      }
    },
    "tmp" : "${_BOWERRC_MY_TMP}"
 }
diff --git a/packages/bower-config/test/test.js b/packages/bower-config/test/test.js
index 967eaf3f2..d9a810e28 100644
--- a/packages/bower-config/test/test.js
+++ b/packages/bower-config/test/test.js
@@ -224,10 +224,13 @@ describe('Allow ${ENV} variables in .bowerrc', function() {
     it('sets values from process.env', function() {
         process.env._BOWERRC_MY_PACKAGES = 'a';
         process.env._BOWERRC_MY_TMP = '/tmp/b';
+        process.env._BOWERRC_MY_USER = 'username';
+        process.env._BOWERRC_MY_PASS = 'password';
 
         var config = require('../lib/Config').read('test/assets/env-variables-values');
         assert.equal('a', config.storage.packages);
         assert.equal('/tmp/b', config.tmp);
+        assert.equal('username:password', config.storage.registry.search[0]);
         assert.equal('${_myshellvar}', config.scripts.postinstall);
     });
 });
@@ -238,7 +241,7 @@ describe('untildify paths in .bowerrc', function() {
         var config = require('../lib/Config').read('test/assets/env-variables-values');
         var untildify = require('untildify');
 
-        assert.equal(untildify('~/.bower-test/registry') , config.storage.registry);
+        assert.equal(untildify('~/.bower-test/registry') , config.storage.registry.register);
     });
 });