Next Era sets decarbonization goals - 16GW of NG units to be converted to green hydrogen

• Goal calls for significant investments to eliminate all scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emissions across NextEra Energy's operations by no later than 2045  
• Real Zero would deliver clean energy at zero incremental cost to customers, substantially eliminate fuel price volatility and drive U.S. energy independence
• NextEra Energy has created the Zero Carbon Blueprint™, a comprehensive plan to significantly increase renewable energy deployment and lead the $4 trillion market opportunity to decarbonize the U.S. economy
• Plan would generate only carbon-emissions-free energy from a diverse mix of wind, solar, battery storage, nuclear, green hydrogen and other renewable sources
• Real Zero is the most ambitious carbon emissions reduction goal ever set by an energy producer, and the sector's only one to not require carbon offsets for success
• Economic studies indicate that reaching NextEra Energy's Real Zero goal could create up to 150,000 jobs and add $15 billion in annual gross domestic product (GDP) in Florida through 2045

As the producer of more electricity than any other U.S. energy provider, NextEra Energy has made and plans to continue making a significant impact on the reduction of carbon emissions both for its sector and the U.S. economy overall.

The company plans to leverage its Zero Carbon Blueprint to reduce carbon emissions along three parallel paths:

• First, NextEra Energy intends to decarbonize its own business, beginning with the commitment to eliminate carbon emissions, without the need for carbon offsets, from its operations by no later than 2045.
• Second, the company plans to help decarbonize more of the U.S. power sector through continued investments and innovation in wind, solar, battery storage, green hydrogen and other renewable energy development.
• Third, NextEra Energy would also help lead the decarbonization of the U.S. economy by working to become the preferred partner for customers to help them reduce or eliminate carbon emissions in their own operations.

A significant portion of NextEra Energy's plan to eliminate carbon emissions is designed to take place at Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), which is the nation's largest electric utility serving over 12 million Floridians.

Over the last 20 years, FPL has improved its carbon-emissions rate by 40%, resulting in an emissions profile that today is already 28% below the national average. Over that time, FPL has eliminated its use of foreign oil and shuttered all of its coal plants in Florida while saving its customers more than $12 billion in avoided fuel costs.

As part of Real Zero, FPL's goal is to significantly accelerate the transformation of its generation mix, reaching 36% decarbonized by 2025, 52% by 2030, 62% by 2035 and 83% by 2040, culminating in 100% decarbonized by no later than 2045. FPL plans to reach these interim targets through further modernization of its generation fleet in Florida, which will be comprised of a diverse mix of solar, battery storage, existing nuclear, green hydrogen and other renewable sources.

FPL intends to achieve Real Zero across its operations at zero incremental cost for its customers, relative to alternatives, and to keep FPL customer bills among the lowest in the country, just as they have been for more than a decade. As natural gas generation is reduced, customers would benefit from increased cost certainty in their electric bill as fuel price volatility would decrease over time until it is a negligible factor by 2045.

Specifics of FPL's Real Zero goal include:

• The nation's largest solar expansion would get significantly larger: Today, FPL generates nearly 4,000 megawatts (MW) of solar from approximately 15 million solar panels. By 2045, FPL would significantly expand its solar capacity, increasing the amount of solar generation on FPL's system to more than 90,000 MW from hundreds of millions of solar panels.
• More battery storage would provide more energy when the sun isn't shining: Achieving Real Zero will add more than 50,000 MW of battery storage to FPL's grid, up from 500 MW today. This energy storage will be critical to store the power of the sun and deploy it during times when it isn't shining, such as in the evening when demand begins to rise as customers return home.
• Continuation of clean, efficient nuclear power: FPL presently has 3,500 MW of nuclear capacity on its system and reaching Real Zero intends for that capacity to continue to provide clean, efficient energy. Nuclear is an important base-load generation source, which FPL expects will continue to play an important role in generating affordable, carbon-emissions-free electricity for FPL customers for many decades to come.
• Natural gas would be displaced by green hydrogen in some of its existing generating units: FPL would convert 16,000 MW of existing natural gas units to run on green hydrogen. The conversion of these modern, efficient units to green hydrogen is expected to be a cost-effective solution for customers and their operation would serve as an important and diverse generation source. Importantly, reaching FPL's Real Zero goal would not result in any stranded generation assets.
• Renewable fuels would provide capacity reserve for reliability purposes: To ensure additional generation is available for reliability purposes, FPL would be able to generate up to 6,000 MW of carbon-neutral power with renewable natural gas (RNG), which would comprise only 2.4% of the volume of natural gas presently used in FPL plants. RNG is derived from biomass or other renewable resources and is a pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas. NextEra Energy has already started investing in RNG facilities in Florida and has more opportunities planned in the future.

"FPL's Real Zero goal represents a continuation of what we've long done for our customers — making disciplined and proven long-term investments in low-cost, clean and reliable technology, while keeping customer bills affordable and well below the national average," said Eric Silagy, chairman and chief executive officer, FPL.

"This isn't a plan to plant trees or purchase offsets, but rather would be a complete elimination of our incremental carbon emissions in Florida to the benefit of our customers, a clean environment and the state's growing economy. Successful implementation of our plan would be a literal game changer for our customers, for Florida and for any other utilities who want to walk with us as we work toward achieving Real Zero."