TEHRAN – A national plan to equip around 12,000 schools across the country with solar power plants began on Thursday with the installation of a 5-kilowatt system in a technical-vocational school in Tehran.

Schools affected by war, boarding schools, schools in border areas, and in underprivileged regions are given priority. Donors have taken responsibility for covering costs, and the Clean Energy Organization is providing the required equipment to the selected schools. Also, the provincial officials and electricity departments are participating in the preparation and installation process, IRNA reported.

So far, 12 out of 31 provinces have announced their readiness, and the goal is to equip all 12,000 schools with 5-kilowatt systems by mid-September. There are about 100,000 public schools in the country, more than 60 percent of which have the capacity to install solar panels.

In November 2025, Majid Parsa, head of the Tehran Education Department, announced that 1,200 schools across Tehran province were set to be equipped with rooftop solar panel systems by the end of the past Iranian calendar year (20 March 2026). The initiative followed an agreement with the Tehran Governor’s Office to install five-kilowatt systems on each participating school.

Parsa noted that the project would initially be implemented on a trial basis to assess performance, maintenance and grid integration. “The Education Department has already equipped five schools with pilot solar systems, which have shown promising results,” he said at the time. He added that solar-powered schools could play a vital role in energy conservation, providing clean electricity for their own use and potentially supplying surplus power to the national grid.

Akbar Hasan Beklou, managing director of Tehran Province Electricity Distribution Company, earlier stated that the project aims to generate about six megawatts of solar power through these school installations, with the first phase expected to connect to the grid within three months.

The first school equipped with solar panels was inaugurated in Tehran’s District 12 in midNovember 2025. During the opening ceremony, it was announced that any school wishing to install solar panels would receive 50 percent support from the district municipality.

The ceremony was attended by Abdolreza Golpayegani, Deputy Minister of Transport and Urban Development, South Korea’s Ambassador to Iran Kim Junpyo, Sadegh Pouraghdam (Advisor to the Minister of Transport and Urban Development and Secretary of the National Habitat Committee), and Mohammad Ayini, Mayor of District 12.

The solar school project was launched on the initiative of the Iran Urban Regeneration Company, with support from the National Habitat Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran and in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) office, at the Rahiane Qods Technical School in the Sirous neighborhood.

At the ceremony, Golpayegani stated that the project is part of the implementation of the “National Urban Policy Document”. “The main objective of this project is to model and promote the use of renewable energy in wornout urban fabrics,” he said. “The implementation of this project puts Tehran on the path toward more sustainable and resilient cities.”

He explained that the Urban Regeneration Company works to improve and renovate worn-out urban areas across social, economic, cultural, and educational fields, and that advancing this mission requires public participation and cooperation from all relevant institutions.