NEPI Rockcastle has opened its second large greenfield photovoltaic park at Ariceștii Rahtivani (Nedelea), north of Bucharest, bringing its in-house renewable energy capacity to approximately 31% of its total electricity consumption by the end of 2026. The park is part of the company's €100 million green energy investment programme and is located on a 75.5 hectare former mineral aggregate extraction site in Prahova County.
The facility has an installed capacity of 56.2 MW and is expected to generate around 73,000 MWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 40,000 Romanian households. It is also projected to prevent the emission of approximately 17,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
"Strategically the green energy programme makes a lot of sense. By the end of this year, we will be generating some 31% of our total electricity needs, a significant step up from 6% two years ago. This investment improves the efficiency and resilience of our portfolio, while helping our tenants to operate sustainably and protect the communities and ecosystems surrounding our shopping centres," said Andrei Radu, Group Development Director at NEPI Rockcastle.
The site repurposes previously degraded land, with the areas between solar panel rows used as pasture for sheep grazing by local farmers, providing a vegetation management approach that also supports the rural economy. The park's infrastructure, including its own transformer station, has been designed to allow future expansion through the integration of battery energy storage systems. The park was developed in partnership with Global Technical Systems.
NEPI Rockcastle owns a portfolio of 60 properties valued at €8.4 billion across eight countries, with shopping centres in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Spain.
