Russia may not be the first country one thinks of when it comes to solar energy. But the fact, that this energy source is more than abundantly available there, is shown by a project involving the construction of solar systems in Russian schools - together with the pupils. Seven schools are already taking part and more will follow.

The project aims to educate young people about the advantages of renewable energy and gives them the opportunity to gain theoretical and practical experience by operating solar power systems themselves as well as utilizing the energy generated by those systems. For the project, the NGO ideas into energy and the initiative "Schools: Partners for the Future" (PASCH) of the Goethe-Institut Moscow have joined forces, supported by the companies eclareon and Solar23, the German Solar Industry Association and the Russian section of EUROSOLAR from Moscow, financially, the project is supported by the Federal Foreign Office.

For this purpose, small solar systems are installed on the roofs of the "Solar schools". These systems provide the electricity generated for the school's local power grid. In addition to the solar modules on the roof, battery storage, inverters, charge controllers and a monitoring system with a communication centre are also being installed inside the buildings. The systems are supplied by the German solar EPC company Solar23 from Ulm.

Information on the ongoing activities and on networking between the schools is available at www.solarschools.ru.

There is already a great need for a stable and at the same time environmentally friendly energy supply in Russia in many remote regions where often, diesel generators provide the required electricity. This often means a high logistical effort and correspondingly high costs. Since January 2020, Russian consumers have for the first time been granted the legal right to operate the private grid-connected rooftop PV systems with an installed capacity of up to 15 kW. However, before this new law actually comes into effect, technical regulations still have to be put in place, which are expected to come into force until end of this year.