Buffett’s MidAmerican Starts Wind Farm Before Credit Ends

Source: By Ehren Goossens - Dec 28, 2012 12:10 PM CT, Bloomberg • Posted: Monday, December 31, 2012

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., the power provider owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), completed 300 megawatts of wind farms in California ahead of the expiration of a tax credit at the end of this year.

MidAmerican Renewables LLC completed the 168-megawatt Pinyon Pines Wind I and the 132-megawatt Pinyon Pines Wind II projects near Tehachapi, the Des Moines-based company said today in a statement. The 100 Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) 3-megawatt turbines will supply Edison International (EIX)’s Southern California Edison with electricity under long-term contracts.

Developers are racing to finish projects before the production tax credit, which provides incentives to wind farms completed before Dec. 31, expires. The tax credit has helped make wind the largest source of new capacity in the U.S. this year.

“We are pleased to have met our timeline for building the two projects and placing them in service before year-end 2012,” Tom Budler, president of MidAmerican Wind, said in the statement.

With the two projects, MidAmerican Renewables now has more than 1.2 gigawatts of energy assets in operation or under construction, it said.