What Is Warren Buffett Buying? Billionaire Investor Is Dropping Billions On One Industry

Famed investor Warren Buffett has been investing heavily into wind as a renewable energy source, but at his insistence, his interest in clean power is a financial one, not environmental.

Buffett, chairman and CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, told the Financial Times that he has invested billions into wind turbines in Iowa, aiming to make the state the “the wind capital of the world, the Saudi Arabia of wind.” The multibillionaire explained that incentives from the U.S. government are what spurred this interest in wind power.

“We wouldn’t do [it] without the production tax credit we get,” Buffett explained.

MidAmerican, a Des Moines-based energy company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, derives half of the power it provides to its customers from the over 2,600 wind turbines it operates. The company uses wind to supply all the power needs of its Iowa customers, which is considered beneficial to the environment.

“It's very hard to evaluate what they're doing,” Buffett said. “I like to eat candy. Is candy good for me or not? I don't know.”

Buffett further argued that government officials should be responsible for the structural changes that need to happen in order for a shift to green energy to be financially stable. As it stands, he explained, moving away from traditional energy sources, like coal, would put uneven stress on different groups in the market.

“If people want us to junk our coal plants, either our shareholders or the consumer is going to pay for it,” Buffett explained.

MidAmerican has roughly 6.9 million total customers, which includes its subsidiaries. The company said in May 2018 that it would become the first U.S. investor-owned utility to source 100% of its customers' electricity needs from renewable energy upon completion of a nearly $1 billion wind farm in 2020.