About our project

In recent years, a kind of silent revolution in solar energy has taken place worldwide: In many regions of the world, electricity generation with solar energy has become cheaper than electricity production from traditional energy sources. This has led to more new power plants being built worldwide with solar energy than power plants with oil or gas or other energy sources in the last ten years.

   
The idea for the “Solar schools” project came to the managing director of the German institute ideas into energy during a visit to a specialist forum for renewable energies in Moscow in summer 2019. In talks with the Goethe-Institut and School 1502 in Moscow, the German solar company SOLAR23 and the Swiss solar association Solarspar, the installation of a first reference system on the roof of School 1502 was agreed on site. As early as autumn 2019, the solar modules and other components were loaded onto a truck in Germany, installed in the school and ceremoniously inaugurated. The “solar school” project was born. 

After the successful pilot, the concept was initially transferred to six more Russian cities in 2020 with funding, and from 2021 to cities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the project idea for this was transferred to a permanent cooperation between the non-profit promoters ideas into energy and the initiative “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) of the Goethe-Institut and the Central Agency for Schools Abroad (ZfA), with financial support from the Federal Foreign Office. The project is also supported by the companies eclareon and Solar23 from Germany as well as by the two solar energy trade associations Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft from Germany and the Georgian office of the European Renewable Energy Association EUROSOLAR. The installation of the solar systems in the regions was carried out by various installers who specialise in the design and construction of solar power systems.

All participating schools received a solar system installed free of charge, they also receive free teaching material on solar energy for school lessons. The physics teachers and German teachers are also trained by solar energy experts in order to best integrate the installed solar system into the school lessons and to educate the students on all important issues of solar energy use.