NextEra gears up for gas blitz to meet AI power boom

By Jeffrey Tomich | 01/27/2025 06:45 AM EST

CEO John Ketchum reinforced a utility and tech industry message: The U.S. urgently needs more power on the grid.

Solar panels are pictured.

Florida-based NextEra Energy is among the nation's largest U.S. builders of renewable energy. Getty Images

NextEra Energy is teaming up with turbine-maker GE Vernova to build natural gas plants for powering data centers to meet ambitious tech industry plans for artificial intelligence.

Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra, which has operations in all but one state, announced Friday that the power industry behemoth and GE Vernova would develop “multiple gigawatts” of new gas generation nationwide. NextEra said it is also taking early steps to reopen an Iowa nuclear reactor closed just a few years ago.

NextEra CEO John Ketchum reinforced a utility and tech industry message that seems to be getting louder by the day: The United States urgently needs more power on the grid. That includes gas, nuclear, renewables and energy storage.

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“We need electrons right now and we need to unleash the American energy industry and achieve energy dominance,” Ketchum said, repeating a slogan from President Donald Trump, who declared an “energy emergency” on his first day in office.

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