NextEra Energy Inc. could restart its shuttered Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa as soon as the end of 2028, executives said Oct. 28, to support a 25-year power supply deal with Google LLC.
The agreement was among several deals announced one day prior that would see NextEra subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources LLC restart the 615-MW plant, which was shut down in 2020, and purchase minority ownership stakes in the facility from two Iowa power cooperatives in exchange for taking on their decommissioning liability.
Google will purchase the plant's output to run its cloud and AI infrastructure in the state, part of a plan announced in May to invest $7 billion in Iowa over the next two years.
Shares of NextEra were down nearly 3% in midday trading Oct. 28 despite the deal announcements and release of third-quarter results that topped consensus estimates.
"America is in a golden age of power demand," John Ketchum, NextEra president, CEO and chair, said during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "The country needs more electricity than ever. Electrons can't get on the grid fast enough."
Duane Arnold is expected to begin producing electricity again "no later than" the first quarter of 2029 and "perhaps as early as the fourth quarter of 2028," pending regulatory approvals, Ketchum added.
NextEra executives declined to discuss the cost to restart the single-unit plant, which was shuttered in August 2020, a few months before a planned retirement, after entering service in 1975.
"When I went through it, it was like we just kind of put a lock on the door and got the keys out and opened the lock back up," Ketchum said of the plant. "There's obviously some work that has to be done to bring the plant back online, but the plant is in good shape."
NextEra expects Duane Arnold to be eligible for nuclear production tax credits, with a 10% energy community bonus. Once restarted, Ketchum said the company expects the plant to contribute up to 16 cents of annual adjusted earnings per share on average over its first 10 years of operation.
"Duane Arnold is one example of data center hubs we are developing across the country," Ketchum said.
Many of the plant's previous employees are looking to return, according to Ketchum, and the team working on recommissioning the plant includes many of the same people who decommissioned it five years ago.
NextEra executives have been discussing restarting the plant since at least 2024 to meet growing energy demand from large-load customers such as data centers. Along with the power purchase agreement, NextEra and Google also signed an agreement to explore development of advanced nuclear generation in the US, Ketchum said.
"Of course, to move that forward, we'll be certain to appropriately mitigate and limit our financial exposure," Ketchum added.
NextEra has about 6 GW of small modular reactor capacity across existing nuclear plant sites, and is also considering greenfield sites, Ketchum said.
Energy Resources
Energy Resources added 3 GW to its backlog during the quarter, bringing its total backlog to 30 GW, with 1.7 GW of new projects placed into service since NextEra's second-quarter earnings call in July.
"This marks the sixth consecutive quarter that Energy Resources has added three or more gigawatts to its backlog," NextEra CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance Mike Dunne said. The company also saw its strongest quarter ever for battery storage origination, at 1.9 GW of backlog additions.
In the second and third quarters of the year, Ketchum said the company originated 2.8 GW of new battery storage opportunities.
Backlog additions are expected to enter service "over the next few years and into 2029," according to the company.
NextEra expects to receive federal tax credits for its renewables development plans through 2030. The company has also been able to reduce development risk for a "large part of our planned build" through 1.5 times coverage of the project inventory required to support development expectations through 2030, Ketchum said.
FPL
Regulated utility subsidiary Florida Power & Light Co.'s capital expenditures were approximately $2.5 billion for the quarter, and full-year capital investments are expected to be between $9.3 billion and $9.8 billion, according to NextEra's earnings release. FPL's third-quarter regulatory capital employed increased by approximately 8% over the same quarter last year.
FPL's capital investments are expected to total up to $9.8 billion for the year ending September 2025, Dunne said.
FPL reached a 2026 rate settlement agreement in August with most intervenors. If approved, a typical customer bill is expected to increase about 2% annually from 2025 to 2029. The agreement would allow a midpoint regulatory return on equity of 10.95%, with a range of 9.95% to 11.95% with no change to FPL's equity ratio of 59.6%.
The proposed settlement also includes two new large-load tariffs "designed to ensure large-load customers pay for the incremental generation needed to serve them," Ketchum said.
The Florida Public Service Commission is scheduled to decide on the settlement on Nov. 20.
About 90% of FPL's generation comes from "the nation's largest gas-fired fleet and four nuclear units," which are the "backbone of our system," Ketchum said, adding that the utility "will require even more baseload gas generation, and perhaps further down the road, nuclear generation."
FPL plans to invest about $40 billion over the next few years in "all-the-above" energy resources, including 5.3 GW of solar, 3.4 GW of battery storage and a gas peaker plant pending regulatory approvals.
On a weather-normalized basis, FPL's third-quarter retail sales increased by 1.9%.
Results
NextEra reported third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings of $2.35 billion, or $1.13 per share, compared to $2.13 billion, or $1.03 per share, in the third quarter of 2024.
The S&P Capital IQ normalized consensus EPS estimate was $1.02 for the quarter.
FPL reported third-quarter net income of $1.46 billion, or 71 cents per share, compared to $1.29 billion, or 63 cents per share, for the prior-year quarter.
Energy Resources reported third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings of $1.10 billion, or 53 cents per share, compared to $979 million, or 47 cents per share, for the same quarter of 2024.
