Berkshire Hathaway firm announces launch of $200-million Alberta wind power farm

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, speaks during a game of bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., Sunday, May 5, 2019. A company controlled by American investment guru Warren Buffett says it will break ground on a $200-million, 117.6-megawatt wind farm in southeastern Alberta next year. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Nati Harnik

CALGARY - A company linked to American investment guru Warren Buffett says it will break ground on a $200-million, 117.6-megawatt wind farm in southeastern Alberta next year.

In a news release, Calgary-based BHE Canada, a subsidiary of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy, says its Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project will be located southwest of Medicine Hat and will produce enough energy to supply the equivalent of 79,000 homes.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy also owns AltaLink, the regulated transmission company which supplies electricity to more than 85 per cent of the Alberta population.

BHE Canada says an unnamed large Canadian corporate partner has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for the majority of the Rattlesnake Ridge energy output.

The project is being developed by U.K.-based Renewable Energy Systems, which is building two other Alberta wind projects totalling 134.6 MW this year and has 750 MW of renewable energy installed or currently under construction in Canada.

BHE Canada and RES are also looking for power purchase partners for the proposed Forty Mile Wind Farm in southeastern Alberta - they say with generation capacity of 398.5 MW, it could potentially be the largest wind power project in Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 15, 2019