Warren Buffett to double $15bln bet on renewables

CleanTechnica

The Warren Buffet cash-train appears to still have more on it for renewables, based on recent statements made by the mega-investor.

While making a speech at a conference in Las Vegas earlier this week, Buffet made the comment that while his Berkshire Hathaway investment house had already invested around $15 billion into the clean energy sector there was “another $15 billion ready to go, as far as I’m concerned.”

Not an insignificant amount of money, and considering that Buffet is already one of the largest clean tech investors in the US, another $15 billion would put him well above nearly anyone else.

The investments aren’t likely to stop there, though, as Bloomberg notes:

Unlike other utility-holding companies, Berkshire Hathaway Energy retains all of its earnings. That probably will continue, Buffett said yesterday, estimating that the unit could reinvest about $30 billion into its business in the next decade.

“We’re going to keep doing that as far as the eye can see,” he stated. “We’ll just keep moving.”

In related news, Warren Buffet’s news agency, PR Newswire, recently ran a strongly worded report calling on Congress to reinstate production tax credits for renewables.

The report highlights, in detail, the employment costs of “federal uncertainty” over PTCs — making the case for state legislators to resist fossil fuel industry–funded attacks on pro-renewable energy policies.

Specifically, the report calls for the reinstatement of PTCs for “wind power, biofuels, and energy efficiency technologies,” a worthwhile cause, but hard to say if the report will have much of an impact.

Source: CleanTechnica. Reproduced with permission.