Projected load growth nationwide from data centers, electrification and increased domestic manufacturing will drive increasing demand for renewables through the next decade, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call April 23.
“We believe the U.S. renewables and storage market opportunity has the potential to be three times bigger over the next seven years compared to the last seven, growing from roughly 140 GW of additions to approximately 375 to 450 GW,” Ketchum said.
Ketchum said the domestic solar supply chain is “much improved from two years ago,” asserting that manufacturing capacity has increased and inflationary pressures are easing.
“The U.S. will need a significant and growing amount of electricity over the next decade and beyond, a large part of which will be powered by new renewables and storage,” Ketchum said.
Ketchum said the ability to put solar and battery resources wherever needed will make them especially valuable in meeting demand from data centers in coming years.
The company reported that subsidiary Florida Power & Light placed in service 1,640 MW of solar in the first quarter, while NextEra Energy Resources had its best quarter for solar and storage origination, adding 2,765 MW to its backlog.
CFO Kirk Crews said FPL now owns and operates more than 6,400 MW of solar resources, “the largest utility-owned solar portfolio in the country.”
FPL’s 2024 10-year plan also doubled its battery storage deployment target compared to 2023, with the target now totaling 4 GW. The utility also plans to deploy 21 GW of solar over 10 years.
Crews also announced NextEra Energy Partners plans to repower an additional 100 MW of wind capacity, increasing its wind repowering target to about 1,085 MW through 2026.
Responding to a question about the potential of small modular reactors to help meet data center demand, Ketchum said he is “a real skeptic in SMRs coming into the picture to satisfy data center demand anytime in the near future. … SMRs are still a decade to 15 years away.”
NextEra reported GAAP net income of $2.27 billion ($1.10/share) for the quarter, an 8.72% increase over the same quarter last year. This was off a 14.67% decrease in total revenue for the quarter from last year’s $6.716 billion.
