The tables have turned in the world of energy politics, with wind power, solar energy and battery storage displacing natural gas as the nation’s “bridge fuel,” according to NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum.
Ketchum said gas will play a key role in helping meet a surge of power consumption in the coming years. But new gas-fired power plants will come at a higher cost and won’t be available soon enough to meet the initial wave of electricity demand.
“America is going to need all forms of energy to meet this enormous demand,” he told analysts and investors Wednesday during NextEra’s quarterly earnings call. “But we need to be practical about when technologies will be available at scale and how much they’ll cost when they show up.”
The idea that renewable energy is a bridge for meeting demand until more natural gas and nuclear generation can be plugged into the grid is a 180-degree turn from years past when natural gas was seen as the lowest-emitting power supply to bring online until zero-carbon energy becomes cheaper and easier to deploy.
