Advocating for Clean Air
For decades, NextEra Energy has been reducing emissions through the development of renewable energy and modernization of its generation fleet. The company’s goal is to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rate 67% by 2025, from a 2005 baseline. This equates to a nearly 40% reduction in absolute CO2 emissions, despite the company’s total expected electricity production almost doubling from 2005 to 2025. Working toward this goal, as of year-end 2019, NextEra Energy has reduced its CO2 rate by 52.2% and the absolute CO2 tons by 20.0% while our generation increased 67.5%. NextEra Energy expects to periodically update its CO2 emissions goal as it continues to execute on its strategy of being a leading clean energy infrastructure company.*
Reducing Emissions
We have one of the lowest emissions profiles of any utility in North America. In 2019, our SO2, NOx and CO2 rates were 93%, 72% and 47% lower, respectively, than the U.S. electric power sector average.*
Investing in Clean Generation
In 2019 alone, nearly 57 million tons of carbon dioxide were avoided thanks to our emissions-free wind, solar and nuclear power generation -- that's the equivalent of taking over 11 million cars off the road.
Supporting Cleaner Cars
FPL operates a large clean vehicle fleet consisting of more than 2,500 bio-diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles that provided a more than 666,000 gallon reduction in petroleum use and a more than 6,500 ton reduction in CO2 emissions in 2019.
Reducing emissions with a cleaner fleet
In 2019, 97% of the power produced by NextEra Energy's facilities was generated from a diverse mix of clean or renewable sources, including wind, solar, natural gas and nuclear. Along with NextEra Energy Resources being the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun, FPL's investments in affordable clean energy infrastructure, which includes adding advanced technologies and phasing out older coal-fired and oil-burning power plants, has saved customers over $10.5 billion in fossil fuel costs and prevented nearly 150 million tons of CO2 emissions since 2001.
FPL has invested in advanced generation technology to modernize our older, outdated power plants to highly efficient natural gas facilities that produce more energy with less fuel and substantially lower emissions.
We are also greatly reducing our reliance on coal and oil -- in addition to shutting down two coal facilities within the past two years, we are planning to retire an additional coal facility by the end of 2020 and our ownership share in another unit by early 2022. FPL has also launched our groundbreaking '30-by-30' plan to install 30 million solar panels by 2030. FPL projects that solar will outpace coal and oil combined as a percentage of the company's energy mix by the end of 2020.
NextEra Energy acquired Gulf Power in January 2019 and immediately began identifying investments to improve reliability and expand clean energy, while working to reduce costs for customers. The Blue Indigo Solar Energy Center, Gulf Power’s first solar development project, came online in early 2020. Plant Crist is being converted from coal to clean natural gas. A new transmission line is being developed to connect the Gulf Power and FPL systems. As these investments come into service, Gulf Power’s CO2 emissions rate is expected to be reduced by approximately 30% in the first three years of NextEra Energy’s ownership.
Beyond our power generation, through innovation and support of new technologies, we are reducing emissions and encouraging customers to do the same.
Conserving and Managing Water
Water is critical for traditional forms of power generation, which use water to drive electric steam generators as well as to cool certain power plant equipment. To ensure sustainable access to this natural resource, we're active stewards for sourcing, using and managing water in the communities in which we operate. NextEra Energy operates power generation across the United States. Only two generation facilities that use water are located in regions of high or extremely high water stress in the United States, and these facilities represent only 0.28% of our company’s total water consumption.
We continue to take measures to reduce our water consumption, including investing in both water-free power generation from wind and solar and in more efficient generation at our facilities that use steam turbines.
Conserving Water
Just as water plays a critical role in the generation of reliable, affordable power, we understand the vital need to conserve and protect our water resources. We embed water conservation management strategies into our business planning and operational practices to lower costs and mitigate risks posed by water availability. We reduce consumption through efficiency, technology and operational improvements, including:
- Investing in water-free power generation: We've made a conscious decision to invest in wind and photovoltaic solar generation, which together comprise more than a third of our company's generating capacity. Neither technology uses water for power generation. Our investments in water-free wind and solar energy avoided the use of more than 14 billion gallons of water in 2019.
- Using sustainable water sources: Nearly 80% of the water we withdrew in 2019 came from seawater sources, which are non-potable and drought proof. We also use reclaimed water for cooling purposes when feasible; for example, our West County Energy Center in Florida uses reclaimed water. In 2019, we used 7.2 billion gallons of reclaimed water. Doing so offsets the demand for higher-quality water and reduces water supply risk. In June 2020, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved FPL’s proposed development of a state-of-the-art reclaimed water project that will reuse treated wastewater from the county at FPL’s Turkey Point Clean Energy Center. The Miami-Dade Clean Water Recovery Center is expected to treat up to 15 million gallons of wastewater per day. The agreement solidifies FPL’s alliance with the county to build one of the largest reclaimed water projects in the state.
In addition, we have increased efficiencies at our facilities that use steam turbines to generate power. Importantly, 98% of water withdrawn for use at our thermoelectric plants is withdrawn via a once-through cooling system and then returned to its original source. The remainder of the water withdrawn is reused or consumed through evaporation or deep well injection.
Managing Water
As in other areas of our operations, we adopt best practices for water management to minimize our environmental footprint while optimizing operational and financial performance. Existing facilities are constantly challenged to be innovative and efficient. For example:
- Facilities monitor water quality parameters to ensure proper quality for plant use, as well as adherence to discharge permitting requirements, which protect receiving water bodies. Water quality changes can also help identify potential issues in the system such as leaking pipes or valves.
- We use Six Sigma and quality improvement processes to identify opportunities to reduce water use. This also leads to cost savings at our facilities, which can ultimately save our customers money.
- Modernizations completed at three of our power plants in Florida increased how efficiently we use water. The modernized plants have greater generation capacity when compared to the previous plants, without using additional water to reach that capacity.
*The CO2 emissions goal is based on NextEra Energy's owned generation. Achievement of the CO2 emissions goals will be dependent on many factors, including, but not limited to, governmental policy and mergers and acquisitions.
*Please note that the environmental attributes of NextEra Energy's electric generating facilities have been or likely will be sold or transferred to third parties, who are solely entitled to the reporting rights and ownership of the environmental attributes, such as renewable energy credits, emissions reductions, offsets, allowances and the avoided emission of greenhouse gas emissions.