(BRK.A), (BRK.B)
Berkshire Hathaway Energy has borrowed $275 Million for its Jumbo Road wind farm, according to Bloomberg News.
Mizuho Financial Group Inc. led the 10-year financing with CoBank Financial Corp., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. also participating.
Bloomberg reports that pricing started at 162.5 basis points over the London interbank offered rate.
Located in the Texas Panhandle, the Jumbo Road wind farm began commercial operation in April 2015. The wind farm has 162 wind turbines with the capacity to generate approximately 300 megawatts of power, and can power up to 600,000 homes when fully operative.
Built by Lincoln Clean Energy, LLC, and owned and operated by TX Jumbo Road Wind, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway’s BHE Renewables, Jumbo Road supplies electricity to Austin Energy. The utility is the nation’s eighth largest publicly-owned electric utility, and is a department of the City of Austin.
The state of Texas leads the nation in wind power, with 10% of its energy needs met by wind-generation. The growth in wind energy was fueled in part by the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which was signed into law by then governor George W. Bush in 1999, and later expanded in 2005.
Texas quickly surpassed its goal of developing 5,880 megawatts of renewable energy by 2015, and has now exceeded its nonbinding target of 10,000 megawatts by 2025. A key component in the Renewable Portfolio Standard is a renewable energy credit trading program.
© 2015 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.