In a written statement, MidAmerican said it is buying SunPower's Antelope Valley projects in California, photovoltaic facilities with a combined generating capacity of 579 MW. The co-located facilities in Kern and Los Angeles Counties in Calif., will provide power to Southern California Edison.
“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.”
Construction of the two projects on the 3,230-acre site is currently expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Under the terms of the deal SunPower will build and operate the projects for MidAmerican Renewables, a division of MidAmerican Energy, which is controlled by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
"The Antelope Valley Solar Projects mark a historic milestone for the energy industry," said Howard Wenger, SunPower president, regions. "We are delivering highly reliable low-cost renewable energy at a very large scale. SunPower is proud to partner with MidAmerican Solar and SCE, recognized leaders in clean energy development, bringing critically needed jobs and economic opportunity to California and helping the state achieve its renewable portfolio requirement."
Buffett's last foray into solar was almost exactly a year ago. In December 2011 he purchased the 550 MW Topaz solar facility from First Solar for a reported $2 billion. Earlier in the year, MidAmerican purchased a 49 percent state in the $1.8 billion Agua Caliente solar farm in Arizona.
MidAmerican is based in Des Moines, Iowa. The deal will give its renewable power subsidiary 1,830 MW of wind, geothermal, solar and hydro power production.
According to estimates provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the project is expected to offset more than 775,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which is equivalent to removing almost three million cars from California's highways over 20 years of the plant's operation.
In related news, MidAmerican announced on New Year's Eve that it had completed of its three Iowa wind projects totaling 407 MW that were under construction in 2012.
“MidAmerican Energy had approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to add up to 1,001 megawatts of wind-powered generation prior to 2013, and I’m proud to say that we fulfilled that commitment,” Fehrman said. “Wind now comprises approximately 30 percent of MidAmerican Energy’s generation portfolio.”
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