BIG Shopping Centers Group starts EUR 109 million wind farm project in Romania

BIG Shopping Centers Group is taking over a wind power plant project of 102 MW in Romania, marking a major expansion of its renewables portfolio.

Israel’s leading shopping center development group BIG Shopping Centers established an energy branch to facilitate the growing number of its energy projects worldwide. The daughter company BIG Energia Holdings Kft., based in Budapest, will acquire a Romanian firm that developed a 102 MW wind farm project near Brăila in eastern Romania. The wind power plant under development will consist of 17 turbines of 6 MW each.

The new company is set to pay EUR 7 million for the project, including shares, project development, and building permits, while the wind power plant is valued at EUR 109 million in total, the Herzelia, Israel–based group said. It announced the plan to set up a significant investment branch in the energy sector two years ago.

Galis: Green energy is trajectory for growth, diversification

As the BIG Group is planning significant investments in the energy sector, a special executive committee was formed, led by Dani Kaplan, who became BIG’s Vice President for Energy.

Chief Executive Officer Hay Galis said the group defines green energy production as a source of growth and leverage for investment diversification. In line with the company’s core values, it would continue to invest in a global enterprise for renewable energy.

“It is the first and significant step towards the implementation of a global development policy in the energy sector,” Galis said and added the business activities in the United States of America are proceeding as planned and that new energy branches would be established and that the remaining capital would be used to extend the company’s principal ventures and to establish new energy branches.

The BIG group has nine shopping centers in Serbia, sixteen in Israel, and 51 units in the US, where it has 15 more under development.