A Letter from our President and Chief Executive Officer
To all our stakeholders
It is the honor of my professional life to lead the best team in our industry at NextEra Energy. Our team has a clear vision: We will help lead the decarbonization of the U.S. economy. This vision is bold – even unprecedented. Yet, it’s consistent with our decades-long record of performance for all our stakeholders, including our accomplishments and goals related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) that we share with you in this report.
I joined this company nearly 20 years ago, and right away was given the opportunity to work on a game-changing step we took at that time to move forward to a clean energy future. That transaction was the conversion of a gas turbine contract with General Electric, still one of our largest suppliers today, to a contract for wind turbines. We made that decision because we saw something others didn’t see, that renewables would soon become the low-cost generation source of choice.
Our first-mover advantage in wind at what is now NextEra Energy Resources was soon expanded to solar. We started first with solar-thermal technology, but then photovoltaic technology came along and was a game-changer for us and for our entire economy, and our solar business began to take off. Over the years, NextEra Energy Resources became the largest generator of wind and solar energy in the world.
Over this same period, Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) led its own transformation. FPL was already one of the best utilities in the nation. But the FPL team was not satisfied 20 years ago, and still is not satisfied today, and we have chosen to be a first mover in the utility space time and time again. FPL voluntarily reduced our reliance on foreign oil by 99% starting in 2001. We were also one of the very first utilities to fully deploy smart meters across our service area and to launch a comprehensive storm hardening program to help us restore power faster after major storms and to help us improve everyday reliability. And FPL was also the first utility to really go after renewables as a way to reduce customer bills relative to alternatives.
Both FPL and NextEra Energy Resources continue to be industry leaders. Several years ago, both businesses invested in battery storage, which is the holy grail of renewables because it can help make wind and solar energy a nearly firm energy product. Today, our vision is focused on deploying even more renewables and storage, which in the future we expect to be supplemented by green hydrogen as a way to convert gas turbines to generate emissions-free baseload generation. We have built both FPL and NextEra Energy Resources through a series of toe-in-the-water investments that over time have added up to something big, a scalable platform, built from the ground up, and centered on the best opportunity set and team in the industry.
Our vision to help decarbonize the U.S. economy is based upon that scalable platform and everything else that has made our company successful over at least the last 20 years. We plan to achieve our vision in four ways, simultaneously:
» We plan to decarbonize ourselves, starting at FPL, and starting with the most ambitious goal set by any U.S. utility or power provider to date, and the sector’s only one to not require carbon offsets. Our goal is to achieve Real Zero, meaning we will be carbon emissions free by no later than 2045. Described in our Zero Carbon Blueprint™, Real Zero means exactly that: zero carbon emissions, 100% clean energy, at no incremental cost to our customers.
» We plan to partner with our peer companies to help decarbonize the rest of the U.S. power sector, continuing the work that NextEra Energy Resources has done with investor-owned utilities, municipalities and cooperatives over the last 20 years. We believe that, as we work toward our own Real Zero goal, we will further develop the capabilities that can help other power companies meet their own goals.
» We plan to partner with companies outside the power sector to help lead the decarbonization of the rest of the U.S. economy. We aim to become the preferred U.S. partner for renewable energy infrastructure solutions of Fortune 1000 customers that are trying to achieve their own sustainability goals, especially in sectors with high electric use or high emissions.
» We plan to continue to build the nation’s leading competitive transmission business to help provide the backbone for the significant renewables expansion that we believe is coming.
Many other elements of our ESG strategy are discussed throughout this report, such as the measurable progress we have made on racial equity at our company, especially over the last two years. We have also committed to additional disclosures on various metrics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our team’s efforts and am honored to have joined a board of directors that has such a strong commitment to corporate governance and ethics and which provides oversight of every facet of NextEra Energy’s strategy that is reflected in this document.
Our company has made many ambitious goals. Some, such as reliable and affordable electric service, date from the founding of our company nearly a century ago. Others, such as our new Real Zero goal, keep us focused on what we can achieve in the decades ahead. Reaching each of our goals is the imperative of the most talented team in our industry. Over the last 20 years, and especially over the last six months, I have become even more grateful for all my colleagues who come to work every day focused on delivering even more value to our customers and who challenge themselves to make our company even better.
On behalf of our more than 15,000-member team, thank you for your interest in learning more about NextEra Energy and all our ESG accomplishments and goals.
Sincerely,
John Ketchum
NextEra Energy President & CEO
