NextEra Energy Resources CEO Talks Electrification Strategy, Growth

As energy demand rises across the U.S., clean energy powerhouse NextEra Energy Resources continues to take an all-forms-of-energy approach with affordability and reliability in mind.

The renewables energy arm of North American utility giant NextEra Energy added more than 12 gigawatts (GW) of new renewables and storage to its backlog in 2024 as it grew adjusted earnings by more than 13% compared to the previous year. Economically meeting growing power needs in the U.S. will require not only renewables backed by battery storage systems but also natural gas-fired generation and nuclear, company executives have said.

Rebecca Kujawa, president and CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, spoke with Oil and Gas Investor’s Velda Addison about the company’s strategy, trends and energy solutions. The conversation took place before Kujawa announced she would retire from her position as CEO.

Editor’s Note: Kujawa, who plans to retire May 22 as CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, will be succeeded by Brian Bolster, executive vice president and CFO of NextEra Energy. This interview was edited for clarity, length and style.

Velda Addison: NextEra has one of the largest natural gas-fired fleets in the U.S. and generates more renewable electricity than any other company in the U.S. What is NextEra’s strategy for maintaining a diversified portfolio that delivers strong financial performance and meets customers’ energy needs?

Rebecca Kujawa: From our perspective, NextEra Energy Resources is uniquely positioned for exactly the reasons you just outlined. That we are a leader in renewable energy. We are a leader in battery storage. We are a leader in natural gas. We are a leader in nuclear, and we build transmission. So, in this world where we have a whole new paradigm of significant load growth, our customers need comprehensive solutions.

They don’t need a single project here or there. They need to solve their customer needs, which means we need to bring everything to the table for them. For us, an all-forms-of-energy approach is critical to exactly what you highlighted: keeping bills low for our customers and for their customers. Being able to understand what’s already in their system today, to bring the lowest cost solution to bear, to be able to develop and serve the load that they want to meet.

VA: What are some of the key or important market trends that you are following?

RK: I’d say the biggest one is that load growth. If you look back at the utility industry or electricity broadly, we’ve seen flattish load growth for a couple of decades. So, it is a whole new world when we’re thinking about significant load growth. And we’re thrilled that it’s driven by really positive market dynamics, reshoring of manufacturing, the development of artificial intelligence and the United States leadership in that, as well as the electrification of industrial load. There is no greater time to be in our industry with the solutions that we have to be able to serve these customers’ needs.

VA: Are you seeing more large-scale energy consumers seeking behind-the-meter solutions for onsite power generation?

RK: We’ve seen a lot of discussion out in the marketplace about that as a potential solution, but less discussion by the customers themselves that would need these solutions. And part of the reason for that is the grid brings a lot of value to these customers. There already is a variety of resources deployed. We already have solved a number of the tough challenges and, ultimately, those solutions that are grid-connected, we believe, will be cheaper and, longer term, more resilient for customers if you connect them to the grid. But that doesn’t mean we or others won’t work to develop them. There may be isolated situations in which they make sense, either in the very short term or as a path to getting grid-connected if there’s a challenge to getting grid-connected right away. But the cost of that may be significant and more than these customers want to bear.

VA: How do you see the role of natural gas and renewables evolving to help meet the demand?

RK: Well, when you have such critical and significant demand that is time sensitive, it is super obvious to those of us in the industry that we really need that all-forms-of-energy approach. In the short term, renewables and storage are ready to deploy.

We, alone, have a 300-GW pipeline of renewables and storage projects that we plan to put into operations in the next couple of years—or be able to. That gives us a huge opportunity to solve the challenges of the day with those projects. But longer term, as we think about 2030 and beyond, additional forms of capacity in certain areas might be best served with natural gas facilities. So, we plan to develop those for our customers, as well. Long term, as an active participant in the energy market, I’d love to see nuclear be an option that we talk about as regularly as we talk about storage, renewables and natural gas. But this is probably a 2035 and beyond solution at scale.

VA: Can you tell me a little bit more about the announcement with GE? You all have a decades-long relationship. How did this latest agreement come about and what made now a good time for such an agreement?

RK: I’d say we might even have a century-long relationship. It’s pretty close. We’re a 100-year-old company. I think we were very closely engaged with GE at the very beginning. So, we have had a very large and long relationship with GE Vernova. We have great respect for what they do—offering solutions along that continuum of products, whether it’s gas, nuclear or, of course, renewables and electrification solutions. So, for us, it was a natural extension of our relationship with them that we’ve already enjoyed to date and recognition of what we need today, which is all forms of energy. And GE Vernova has terrific gas turbine solution technology, and so we’re thrilled to partner with them and bring the most compelling solutions to market for our customers.

VA: About how many power plants are you all thinking about working with GE Vernova to build and where would they be located?

RK: We haven’t given a specific number. It is really around, what do our customers need and what would be the best solution to bring to bear for them? I envision the potential that we could develop a lot with them. We certainly have quite a number of conversations with a variety of municipalities, cooperatives and utilities, as well as those discussions with the hyperscalers that they serve, in order to bring those solutions to bear. So, stay tuned.

VA: What steps are you all taking to help lower greenhouse gas emissions from some of your operations?

RK: We are one of the leaders, if not the leader, in the electric sector of bringing down emissions, specifically CO₂ but also other greenhouse gas emissions. And we’ve done that through a variety of methods. Certainly, deploying renewables and storage is a key part of that. The more carbon-free electricity we can bring to the grid and move it and shape it with storage, the better. But we’ve also done things like improve our natural gas fleet, both in terms of its overall emissions, as well as its fuel efficiency. We have one of the most fuel-efficient fleets in the country, and that’s the ratio of having to take in the fuel and then, ultimately, the electricity that we produce. The less we have to consume, the less, ultimately, that is emitted. As we move forward and talk about the solutions in the 2030s and beyond, I think new nuclear could help us further that goal even beyond what we’re already on the trajectory to do with renewables and storage.

VA: What are your thoughts on utilizing carbon capture and sequestration?

RK: We love for that technology to continue to develop. That has been an objective for the industry for quite some time, to be able to lower the emissions as well as capture them and put them in permanent storage. The technologies are still developing, in my opinion, and you have to factor in the consumption of the electricity in order to even be able to run the carbon capture and sequestration technology. So, I would say we’re still at early stages of that and trying to find a pathway to have to be very scalable and economic for our customers. In the very short term, where our customers need as much energy and capacity as possible, it is definitely something that is on the top of their mind, but perhaps we need a path to it, as opposed to it needs to be part of the solution today.

VA: Moving back to natural gas a little bit, do you consider natural gas a transition or bridge fuel to renewable energy or is it more of the final destination?

RK: I would say a couple years ago, we would have absolutely said it was a transition fuel. And if you were thinking about a flat load growth environment and what we could do to transition it to be very, very low carbon or no carbon over the long term, we saw that as really possible. In the short term, when we see significant load growth, actually renewables and storage need to be the transition to even bringing on those gas solutions in order to meet the load growth.

But yes, I think as we deploy some of these natural gas solutions in the short term, longer-term we’re in a bridge again to more renewables and storage—particularly as you continue to see the inventiveness of the participants in the sector. Even in the last couple of years, we’ve seen huge steps forward in the efficiency of storage technologies and the advent of some really cool long-duration storage technologies that I think, as we keep developing over the coming years, will really provide that longer-term certainty around deploying even more renewables over time.

VA: How do you see natural gas and renewables evolving to support things like hydrogen?

RK: We are very excited about hydrogen in the long term. We actually built a lot of capability over the last couple of years to be able to support hydrogen technologies when they’re ready. In the short term, the cost has been very high relative to what customers are able or willing to pay. So, I think many of us are ready to deploy them, but cost is still a significant factor. I think from a storage perspective broadly, which is one of the key reasons why we’re excited about hydrogen for the electric sector, we have a lot of room to go with just battery storage to bring those storage capabilities to the grid before we need longer forms of storage that hydrogen offers in terms of promise.

VA: Can you provide an update on what’s happening at the Cavendish next-gen hydrogen plant?

RK: It is up and running. So, we’re very excited. It’s being able to take the electricity produced from the solar facility that’s nearby, convert it into hydrogen, and it is being blended into the combined cycle natural gas plant that is also co-located at the facility. I’d characterize it as a great opportunity for us to learn, just like we did a number of years ago with battery storage facilities and solar before that and wind before that. We like to put our toe in the water to get experience with the technology, learn everything we can learn about it, drive the cost down in the technology, and then ultimately deploy with confidence at scale to get good returns for our shareholders, which you asked about in the very beginning. That experience is critical. And so, I would say the best learning from the overall NextEra Energy perspective is about this technology and how it can help in the future.

VA: In the U.S., we’ve seen a lot of change on the political front. How do you navigate the political uncertainty and what are you looking for in terms of public policy?

RK: I would say one of the most important things to keep in mind from an electric sector, even broader energy sector, is we invest in very long-lived assets. We think about public policy with a very long-term perspective in mind. And so, we’re going to see changes. We’re going to see different dialogues around energy policy. And what we really need to stay focused on is what’s the right thing for customers. How do we ensure that customers have bills [as low] as possible? They have high reliability and ultimately get the growth that we need out of the electric sector to drive the growth in the economy. There’s a lot of discussion about what that public policy looks like today, but I think we have shared goals at the end of the day around making sure that we’re able to support industry, whether that’s manufacturing, industrial loads or AI specifically, at low cost and at the speed in which that’s required to be delivered.

VA: Do you have anything else you want to speak about or add?

RK: One of the things that is so top of mind to me here, particularly at CERAWeek, is the interesting group of stakeholders that are here. I think it is a great reflection of what this moment requires, which is collaboration across industries, within industries, to develop the solutions that we need. It is such an exciting time, but it also requires a lot of us to work together in order to be able to solve the challenges of the day.