Dive Brief:

• NextEra Energy subsidiary Florida Power & Light (FPL) in June "demolished" its last coal-fired plant in the state, and plans to replace it with a solar energy complex, Rebecca Kujawa, executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer, told analysts Friday during the company's second quarter earnings call.
• NextEra Energy Resources, the multi-state utility company's renewable subsidiary, added 1,840 MW of renewable and energy storage projects to its backlog during the second quarter. Energy Resources closed the second quarter with a backlog of approximately 16.7 GW.
• Parent company NextEra Energy reported adjusted second-quarter earnings of nearly $1.4 billion, or 71 cents per share, compared to just under $1.3 billion, or 65 cents per share, during the same period last year. Earnings per share rose more than 9% over the second quarter of 2020.

Dive Insight:

During the second quarter, NextEra reached a pair of milestones in the company's larger drive to shift away from fossil fuels to renewable based power.

FPL "successfully commissioned" 373 MW of new solar power during the quarter. Projects included the FPL Discovery Solar Energy Center at Kennedy Space Center, Kujawa said.

With the additions, FPL has passed the 40% mark in the utility's drive to install 30 million solar panels by 2030.

That number is expected to cross the 50% threshold by early 2022, when FPL will have installed more than 15 million solar panels, Kujawa said. To support the rollout of millions of new solar panels, NextEra has begun "installing the first components of the world's largest integrated solar-powered battery system, the 409-megawatt FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center," Kujawa said.

The solar-powered battery system is slated to go online later this year, she said.

NextEra's Energy Resources Development team reached a significant milestone as well during the quarter, reaching the 75% mark for its 2021-2024 goals for the number of renewable megawatts in its development pipeline, Kujawa said. Over the second quarter, the company added agreements for 1,450 MW of solar, 285 MW of wind and "wind repowering," and 105 MW of battery storage, Kujawa said.

"The Energy Resources development team continues to capitalize on what we believe is the best renewables development environment in our history during the second quarter," Kujawa told analysts.

NextEra Energy Resources reported adjusted second quarter earnings of $574 million or $0.29 per share.

Parent company NextEra Energy also in the second quarter issued $3.3 billion in new financings through its NextEra Green bond structure.

Dubbed NextEra Green bonds, the financing is "designated for specific renewable energy and store projects under development across our businesses," Kujawa said.

NextEra Energy "remains well-positioned to meet our 2021 and longer-term growth expectations," NextEra President and CEO Jim Robo said in a statement.

Meanwhile, NextEra Energy is also looking at significant opportunities in the years ahead in the transmission sector as well, Kujawa said.

In response to an analyst's question, Kujawa said that given "the enormous renewables build opportunity" across the U.S. over the coming decades, "new transmission needs to be built to support some of that build-out."

"It's not necessarily imperative today for that transmission to be built, but it certainly is important to start today to build the type of infrastructure that's needed over time," Kujawa said.