The news that Berkshire Hathaway owned MidAmerican Energy is spending $2 billion to buy the Topaz Solar Farm in Central California is the first whiff of good news for the solar industry in what has been a very trying 2011 industry wide. Sure, MidAmerican wants the deal for the tax credits, which run until 2015, but it is a symbol to the investment community that solar has long term viability. Warren Buffet is famous for saying that utilities aren’t a way to get rich but a way to stay rich, and if solar becomes perceived as a reliable return on investment, it would be groundbreaking.  And with the DOE loan program now expired, utility scale renewable energy projects are going to have to find capital in private markets.