NextEra Energy runs two very different businesses under one roof. The first is Florida Power and Light, which sells electricity to more than six million customer accounts across Florida. Regulators set the prices FPL can charge, and those prices are designed to cover costs plus a regulated profit. The second is NextEra Energy Resources, which builds and operates wind farms, solar fields, battery storage systems, and nuclear plants across 44 states, selling power mainly under long-term contracts to utilities and large businesses. One side earns steady, regulated income. The other bets on the continued growth of clean energy. Together they make NextEra one of the largest electric power companies in North America. The diagram below traces where the money goes.

Five years of financial data tell a story of a company spending heavily to grow. Revenue climbed from $17.1 billion in 2021 to $28.1 billion in 2023, dipped to $24.8 billion in 2024, then rose again to $27.4 billion in 2025. Cash from operations has been rising more consistently, going from $7.6 billion in 2021 to $13.3 billion in 2024, before easing slightly to $12.5 billion in 2025. That is a sign the underlying businesses are generating more real cash over time.

But the debt picture tells the other side of that story. Net debt has grown every single year, from $53.5 billion in 2021 to $92.2 billion in 2025. NextEra spends roughly $24 to $25 billion a year on capital projects, far more than its operating cash flow alone can cover. The gap is filled by borrowing. That is a deliberate strategy, not an accident. The company is betting that the assets it builds today will produce regulated or contracted income for decades. But it means the balance sheet keeps growing heavier.

Net income has stayed in a tight range. NextEra earned $7.31 billion in 2023, $6.95 billion in 2024, and $6.84 billion in 2025. The numbers look stable, but the composition shifts year to year. FPL contributed $5.01 billion of net income in 2025, up from $4.54 billion in 2024. That regulated utility business is the company's most predictable engine. The clean energy development side, NEER, contributed $2.98 billion in 2025, up from $2.30 billion in 2024. Clean energy tax credits are a major piece of NEER's profitability, not a side item. During 2025, those credits grew by approximately $585 million, reflecting how much the financial math of building wind and solar depends on government policy remaining in place.

FPL locked in a new rate agreement in January 2026, approved by the Florida Public Service Commission. It adds $945 million in annualized retail base revenue starting in 2026 and another $705 million starting in 2027. That creates a relatively predictable revenue floor for the Florida business through at least December 2029. FPL earned a regulatory return on equity of 11.70% in 2025, right at the top of the allowed range under the previous agreement.

Now for the risks that are documented in NextEra's own filings. Some are specific and serious. Florida is hurricane country. FPL spent a twelve-month surcharge collecting roughly $1.2 billion in 2025 just to cover storm costs from Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton. The year before, it collected roughly $1.3 billion for Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. Storm damage is not a rare event for this company. It is a recurring cost of doing business in Florida, and regulators must approve every dollar of recovery.

NEER's wind farms have killed bald eagles, and the company is on probation with federal wildlife authorities. If more eagles or other endangered species are killed at its wind turbines, NextEra could face criminal prosecution and be forced to shut down or move facilities. That is not a hypothetical warning buried in fine print. It is listed as a high-severity risk in the company's own filings. Separately, NextEra is trying to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa, which shut down in 2020. That restart requires approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If those permits are denied or key equipment cannot be obtained, the entire investment in that project could be lost.

There is also a competitive tension worth understanding. NextEra has not always acted as a pure champion of clean energy. When a 145-mile transmission line project threatened to bring cheap Quebec hydroelectric power into New England and compete with NextEra's own Maine power plant, the company spent money lobbying against it. Maine voters initially rejected the project in 2021. Courts later approved it anyway, and it began operating in January 2026. Closer to home, NextEra's Florida subsidiary reportedly spent $20 million trying to block rooftop solar installations and lobbied against letting homeowners sell excess solar power back to the grid. These episodes show that NextEra competes hard to protect existing revenue, even when that means opposing the renewable energy expansion it publicly promotes.

The total shareholder return for the five years ended December 31, 2025 was approximately 18.2%. Over the same period the S&P 500 returned 96.2% and the S&P 500 Utilities index returned 59.1%. NextEra's returns lagged both the broader market and even its own utility sector peers over this stretch. That gap is the market's way of expressing uncertainty about whether the clean energy growth story will be as profitable as the company's scale suggests it should be.