Warren Buffett recently made a very large investment in renewables over the holidays, and Google also announced a $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in West Texas this past Wednesday.
“In late December, while most of us were busy wrapping presents, our treasury team was tying a bow on our most recent renewable energy deal: an approximately $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in West Texas that generates enough energy to power more than 60,000 average US homes,” said Google in a blog post.
The location of the project is an Oldham County, and it’s known as the Spinning Spur Wind Project. This is a section of the Texas Panhandle that’s completely wide open and very windy. It’s roughly 35 miles from the city of Amarillo. The facility for this project was originally built by EDF Renewable Energy. On the site, there are 72.3 MW Siemens turbines that are now working full-time as of the end of last year. This project primarily helps New Mexico and Texas.
This past December, Warren Buffett made an even bigger investment in renewables.
He paid between $2 billion to $2.5 billion for the 579 MW Antelope Valley Solar Power Projects from SunPower Corp. through MidAmerican Solar. This is the biggest photovoltaic project throughout the world.
A blog named Go Green Solar tells us that Warren Buffett’s project is going to be huge.
“To give you an idea of how massive this project is, a solar panel used in residential applications might be around 230 Watts. That would mean more than 2.5 million 230 Watt solar panels,” the blog tells us.
Warren Buffett is also beginning to invest money into wind. MidAmerican Wind recently completed an installation of the 300 MW Pinyon Pines I and II California project. This consists of 100 3MW turbines provided by Vestas, a Danish manufacturer.
The total renewable assets of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, such as biofuels, wind and solar, can generate up to 1830 MW of electricity.
Many developers were spurred by renewable tax credits, which recently expired on December 31 of last year. Because of this credit, wind had its biggest year ever.
In 2010 alone, Google has made 10 renewable energy investments.