Offshore wind a 'bad bet' among renewable energy choices, NextEra CEO says

The CEO of the world's largest producer of renewable energy said Wednesday he sees offshore wind as a "bad bet" in the fight against climate change due to the complications of installing and maintaining infrastructure at sea and the high cost of transmitting electricity back to shore.

"We find it hard enough just to take care of a fleet onshore with some of the issues that we deal with as a company, and we're best in class," NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) CEO John Ketchum told the CERAWeek conference in Houston, noting some of the industry's complications including salt water corrosion, the threat of hurricanes, the availability of ships and the installation of subsea transmission cables.

The CEO said the Inflation Reduction Act will provide a significant boost to the renewables industry and that NextEra (NEE) is well placed to take advantage of it because of the company's scale.

Despite running the world's largest renewables company, Ketchum said the effort to decarbonize the power grid will require the use of natural gas for years to come.

"It's just putting your head in the sand to believe that the energy transition that this country is embarking on will work without natural gas power generation," Ketchum said.

NextEra Energy (NEE) is a buy "based on a diverse portfolio of power-generating assets, a leading position in renewables, and perfectly positioned to receive a lion's share of IRA Act tax credits," Michael Fitzsimmons writes in an analysis posted recently on Seeking Alpha.