Sunflower Sustainable Investments Ltd. (TASE: SNFL) has signed three more deals to buy and build solar farms in Italy for a total of €47 million (NIS 237 million).
The first contract, the Peimonte 3 project, is for the development of solar farms for the production of 10-13 megawatts of electricity. Sunflower already owns the licenses to the solar farms, and will pay €2.4-2.8 per megawatt to build and develop them, depending on the hook-up date to the national grid. The company expects to sign detailed construction agreements in February-March 2011, and to complete construction during the year.
Sunflower also bought the Foggia and Bari 2 projects, each involving two solar farms for the production of four megawatts of electricity altogether, for €16 million.
Sunflower, controlled by chairman Ram Biram and Gil Deutsch, has invested most of its resources in the past year in buying Italian solar farms, after the Italian government approved legislation to encourage their management.
Biram told "Globes", "Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, we'll begin to hook up solar farms in Israel too. I hope that by the end of the year, our activity in Israel will make a substantial contribution to the company's revenue."
Biram is pleased by Sunflower's progress. "I am pleased to have met our targets for 2010: the building of solar farms in Italy for the production of 12-15 megawatts of electricity. We invested a lot of energy in Italy to build an infrastructure there, and we now want to reap the fruits. This is a large country and we now have the ability to continue and develop activity there," he said.
Sunflower's share price was unchanged at NIS 14.50 by midday today, giving a market cap of NIS 517 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 27, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010