Warren Buffett In $2 Billion Solar Deal

ORIGINAL: Forbes

1/02/2013

First Solar Array (Photo credit: russf)

Making a big bet on solar energy, Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company has acquired two SunPower solar photovoltaic power plant projects in California for between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, the companies said Wednesday.

The adjacent Antelope Valley Solar Projects will be built in Los Angeles and Kern counties and will generate 579 megawatts of electricity for utility Southern California Edison. At peak output that’s the equivalent of a big fossil fuel power plant.

SunPower, the Silicon Valley solar panel manufacturer and developer, will build and operate the projects for MidAmerican Renewables, a division of MidAmerican Energy, which is controlled by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

“We are excited about these projects because they support our core business principle of environmental respect,” Bill Fehrman, president of MidAmerican Renewables, said in a statement. “We are very proud to add SunPower technology to our portfolio of projects,”

It’s just the latest solar deal for Buffett. MidAmerican Energy also owns the 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farms built by First Solar in San Luis County, Calif., and holds a 49% stake in a 290-megawatt solar power plant in Yuma, Ariz.

Construction of the Antelope Valley Solar Projects is set to begin this year with the power plants going online at the end of 2015.