Renewables “cheaper and faster” than methane, says nation’s largest utility

NextEra Energy, the largest clean energy developer in the US, has reported a significant growth in renewable energy projects, adding over 3 GW of renewables and storage projects to their backlog. The company expects to deploy 36.5 to 46.5 GW of new capacity from 2024 to 2027, including wind repowering, new wind, solar, and storage projects. This growth is driven by the company’s shift in energy strategy, prioritizing solar plus storage over methane for future generation leadership.

NextEra’s decision to prioritize solar plus storage is driven by the higher costs, fuel price volatility, and long deployment times associated with new gas-fired generation. Despite refraining from giving specific future demand growth projections, the company believes that power demand will grow four times faster over the next decades compared to the past 20 years. The company’s project pipeline has grown to 300 GW, a 20% increase from the previous year, and they plan to deploy 7.1 GW of solar power in 2024-2025 and an additional 6.1 GW in 2026-2027.

The company’s regional deployment plans include deploying over a third of the capacity in the southeast, particularly Florida, with the Midwest representing nearly another third.