The ceremony, held on Sunday, August 31, 2025, included the Isfahan governor, Shahin-Shahr governor, and the CEOs of Isfahan regional electricity company, Isfahan electricity distribution company, and MAPNA Group.
The CEO of MAPNA Renewable Energies Generation Company announced the start of work on the project. “This solar farm will be built on 300 hectares under a 20-year BOO investment model,” Yavar Anani told the event.
“For the first six years, the government will guarantee the purchase of the electricity. After that, power will be sold through the energy exchange to industries and other buyers,” he added.
He explained that the project will use 700-watt bifacial (N-Type) panels, driver-installed structures, and a central inverter. The capacity factor is expected to reach about 24 percent.
At full operation, the farm will cut carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 230,000 tons per year. It also uses dry cleaning for its solar panels, meaning no water is needed for washing.
A 230 kV substation and double-circuit transmission line will inject the generated electricity into the national grid.
Shahin-Shahr, with a population of around 173,329 as of 2016, is the capital of Shahin-Shahr and Meymeh County in Isfahan Province, Iran. It is notable as Iran’s first master-planned satellite city, located about 24 km north of Isfahan, the country’s historic capital and second largest metropolitan area.
The new solar farm in Shahin-Shahr comes as MAPNA is also building Iran’s largest concentrated solar power plant in Isfahan Province as well—the 600 MW Aftab-e-Shargh (Foulad Mobarakeh) solar power plant, covering 1,200 hectares. It’s being delivered under an EPC scheme and features tracking solar panels as well as bifacial cells.
MAPNA entered the renewable energy sector in the early 2000s. Its previous efforts include a 2 MW solar farm co-located with a 55 MW Kahak wind farm, and three additional 10 MW solar plants in Behreman, Safaiyeh, and Zarand. The company is also developing inverters, battery energy storage systems, and advancing renewable technologies.
MAPNA Expands Renewable, Power Projects in Isfahan
Addressing the event, Mohammad Owliya, President of MAPNA Group, said the company’s activities in the power generation and renewable energy sectors in Isfahan Province are steadily growing.
Owliya pointed out that Sepahan MAPNA Company, based in the Isfahan and active since the 2000s, remains one of the country’s main producers of key power industry equipment, including wind turbine towers.
Speaking about conventional energy, he noted that the South Isfahan Power Plant has been developed under a build–operate–transfer (BOT) framework and is designed for conversion into a combined-cycle facility. He added that the 914-MW Mobarakeh Steel Power Plant will become fully operational within six months, once its steam unit is completed.
On the renewables front, Owliya highlighted the Aftab-e-Shargh 600-MW Solar Power Plant in southeastern Isfahan, which MAPNA is constructing as part of a broader 430-MW agreement with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization of Iran (SATBA).
He stressed that combined-cycle projects play an important role in reducing fuel consumption and can help ease cost bottlenecks in the country’s electricity sector.
Addressing financial challenges, Owliya referred to more than 2,000 trillion rials (around $2 billion) in accumulated receivables owed to MAPNA. He said the group is “exploring mechanisms to channel these receivables into new investments.”
