NextEra Energy sets goal to eliminate carbon emissions by leveraging low-cost renewables

NextEra Energy announced Monday that its plan – Real Zero – would eliminate carbon emissions from its operations no later than 2045 while leveraging low-cost renewables to drive energy affordability for its customers.

The plan is the most ambitious carbon-emissions reduction goal by an energy producer, the company said. Reaching its goal will require significant investment to transform its generation fleet. It will eliminate all scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions across its operations while enhancing reliability, resiliency, affordability, and cost certainty for its customer groups.

“Our Real Zero goal to eliminate carbon emissions from our operations is a real goal that would make a significant difference for our customers,” NextEra Energy President and CEO John Ketchum said. “We are building on our decades of innovation and investments in low-cost renewable energy to decarbonize our company while keeping bills affordable for our customers. Attaining Real Zero will be one of those achievements that provides lasting value to our customers and the communities where we do business. We’ve been working on this for a long time and will take our extensive experience, industry-leading development platform, and scale to help accelerate the decarbonization of the U.S. economy.”

The company said Real Zero would deliver clean energy at zero incremental cost to customers while substantially eliminating fuel price volatility and driving U.S. energy independence.

To achieve Real Zero, the company said it has created a Zero Carbon blueprint – a comprehensive plan to increase renewable energy deployment and lead the $4 trillion market opportunity to decarbonize the U.S. economy. The plan would generate only carbon-emissions-free energy from a mix of wind, solar, battery storage, nuclear, green hydrogen, and other renewable sources.

The company said Real Zero is the most ambitious carbon emissions reduction goal ever set by an energy producer and is the sector’s only goal not to require carbon offsets for success. Additionally, the company said, economic studies indicate that reaching the Real Zero goal could create up to 150,000 jobs and add $15 billion in annual gross domestic product to Florida through 2045.

“We’ve worked hard in developing Real Zero to ensure we have a credible technical pathway to achieve our goals and well-defined milestones every five years so we and all stakeholders can track our progress,” said Ketchum. “We’re part of an industry that is well-positioned to make the most progress in the elimination of carbon emissions, and Real Zero is NextEra Energy’s goal to set a new standard for all power generators.”