James Robo, NextEra Energy CEO since 2012
Photo Illustration by Hayley Warnham; Reference: Courtesy of NextEra Energy
NextEra Energy is the world leader in wind and solar power in an industry otherwise dominated by European companies. Nearly all of that renewables growth has happened during James Robo’s nine years as CEO. NextEra controls 22 gigawatts of electric-generating capacity from renewables, mostly wind power—enough to supply about seven million homes. It expects to roughly double that capacity by 2024.
“We believe that we are in a terrific position to be able to capture a significant share of [future] market opportunities,” said Robo, 58, earlier this year.
NextEra also operates Florida Power & Light, or FPL, one of the largest, best-run electric U.S. utilities. Hugh Wynne, co-head of utilities and renewable energy research at SSR, a research firm, lauds Robo’s “focus on operational excellence” at FPL, which “has storm-hardened its power transmission and distribution system, invested in gas transmission into Florida, and replaced aging oil- and coal-fired steam turbine generators” with new gas-fired turbines.
Under Robo, NextEra has become the country’s top electric utility by market value. It trades for an industry-leading 30 times earnings.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
