Florida utility to American green titan | Shock as Robo steps down as NextEra CEO

Jim Robo – who transformed Florida utility holding company NextEra Energy into the largest US solar and wind energy producer, and among the leaders globally – surprised the industry by announcing he will step down on 1 March.

NextEra’s shares tumbled more than 8% on the news to $75.10 at the close of trading in New York on Tuesday.

John Ketchum, CEO of subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources, the company’s competitive wholesale power company with 21GW of mostly renewable generation capacity, will succeed Robo.

Robo will become executive chairman as part of a planned leadership succession process. CFO Rebecca Kujawa will replace Ketchum at Energy Resources.

“Our outlook for new renewables and storage development remains as strong as ever and we are excited to be able to continue supporting the industry’s transition away from old inefficient forms of generation,” said Robo on his last earnings call as CEO.

Energy Resources in 2021 added 7.2GW of new renewables and battery storage projects to its backlog, the best year ever for origination, and commissioned 3.8GW of capacity for those three technologies.

Robo became CEO in July 2012. During his tenure, NextEra Energy rose to become one of America’s five leading infrastructure investors through its more than $110bn in capital deployment, and the nation’s largest electric utility by market capitalisation.

The company’s other major business is utility Florida Power and Light.

Ketchum told analysts that NextEra has “never been in a better position” from a competitive, financial, and management leadership position to double down on renewables.

“Don’t forget renewables are cheap; they’re the cheapest form of generation in this country with or without incentive,” he said, referring to the federal wind production tax credit, which expired at the end of 2021.