By Cassandra Sweet Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Warren Buffett's energy company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s (BRKA, BRKB) MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., said Friday it will expand its still-new position in solar power by purchasing a stake in a second solar farm. MidAmerican will buy a 49% share of a $1.8 billion solar-power plant owned by NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) that U.S. solar-panel maker First Solar Inc. (FSLR) is building in the Arizona desert. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. First Solar and NRG obtained a $967 million government loan guarantee for the 290-megawatt project, called Agua Caliente, which the companies have said could generate enough electricity to serve about 56,000 homes. Earlier this month, MidAmerican said it agreed to buy a $2 billion California solar farm from First Solar, which put the Iowa-based owner of utilities, wind farms and conventional power plants in the solar power business for the first time. First Solar was unable to get a loan guarantee for that project, a 550-megwatt facility planned for San Luis Obispo, Calif., called Topaz Solar. But MidAmerican's chairman and chief executive, Greg Abel, said the project was "commercially viable" even "without the support of government loan guarantees." Both solar facilities have long-term power purchase agreements with PG&E Corp.'s (PCG) California utility. MidAmerican Energy's solar purchases are the latest in a string of similar deals in the small but fast-growing U.S. solar-power market. Federal and state incentives, and renewable-energy requirements in states like California, have made solar power a lucrative business for project owners. But expiring government subsidies and uncertainty about future demand have put pressure on solar-panel makers like First Solar. Buying a stake in the Agua Caliente project is part of MidAmerican's goal to "aggressively [pursue] opportunities to expand our presence in the renewable energy sector," Abel said Friday in a statement. For NRG, MidAmerican's partnership on the Topaz project brings "strength and creditworthiness," NRG President and Chief Executive David Crane said in a statement. NRG, of Princeton, N.J., owns fleets of coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, as well as retail power operations in several states. The company also owns or partly owns several solar facilities, including a 250-megawatt California solar farm that it bought in September from solar-panel maker SunPower Corp. (SPWR) and a 390-megawatt solar-thermal power plant, being built by BrightSource Energy, in which NRG said it would invest $300 million. -By Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6468; cassandra.sweet@dowjones.com
