Updates share price, adds analyst quotes, data center projects in paragraphs 6-8, 15
By Laila Kearney and Seher Dareen
April 23 (Reuters) - NextEra Energy NEE.N added some 2,765 megawatts (MW) of wind, solar and battery storage projects in the first three months of this year, marking its second-best quarter for growth in its renewables division, executives said on Tuesday.
NextEra, which includes renewables business NextEra Energy Resources and regulated electric utility Florida Power & Light (FPL), said its project backlog stands at roughly 21.5 gigawatts (GW), up from 20 GW at the end of 2023.
Florida-based NextEra, the world's largest renewables company, has benefited from federal and state clean energy incentives along with rising U.S. power demand, which is projected to grow at an unprecedented rate in some of the country's regions through 2030 after a roughly two-decade lull.
"We believe the U.S. renewables and storage market opportunity has the potential to be three times bigger over the seven years compared to the last seven," NextEra's CEO John Ketchum said on the company's first-quarter earnings call.
The electricity of big tech, including those for data centers, domestic manufacturing and the electrification of the oil and gas industry will be among the top power growth drivers, Ketchum said.
NextEra has about 3.5 GW of data center capacity and another 3.5 GW, or enough to power all of the homes in the state of Minnesota, in its backlog. The company said it expects about a 15% compound annual growth rate in data center demand through the end of the decade.
Shares of NextEra rose by more than 2% to as high as $67.17 on Tuesday, their highest level since late September of 2023.
"Their outlook and their optimism regarding the demand for renewables, electricity demand in general, and their position - I think that's what's driving -term upside today," said Paul Patterson, an analyst at Glenrock Associates.
NextEra's reported first-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates, partly because FPL added more customers to its regulated utilities business.
FPL, which generates most of its electricity from gas, benefited from a 32.6% decline in gas prices since the start of 2024 through lower fuel spend.
The utility also added 100,000 more customers compared to the same quarter last year.
FPL filed a 10-year site plan in April, aiming to increase its solar power generation from 6% in 2023 to 38% in 2033, while doubling battery storage capacity. It put 1,640 MW of solar into service during the most recent financial quarter, the company said.
NextEra, however, missed revenue estimates for the quarter, reporting $5.73 billion versus analysts' expectations of $6.15 billion, according to LSEG data, in part due to lower retail sales at FPL during a milder-than-expected winter.
NextEra Energy Resources reported income of $966 million, or 47 cents per share, compared to $1.44 billion, or 72 cents per share last year.
"We continue to view NEER's (NextEra Energy Resources) differentiated platform as an underappreciated opportunity to tap strong data center and renewables growth," JP Morgan analysts said.
On an adjusted basis, NextEra earned 91 cents per share in its latest reported quarter, beating analysts' average estimate of 78 cents, according to LSEG data.
The company maintained its adjusted earnings per share forecast for 2024 at between $3.23 and $3.43.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru and Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Pooja Desai, Marguerita Choy and Paul Simao)