Wind energy hasn’t been getting the hype it deserves this past year, especially with so much focus on solar power and the rapidly declining price of solar panels.
But quietly building its profit was NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE), a company that works heavily in renewable power, particularly solar and wind.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, NextEra was able to double its net income from a year before.
In 2010, the company had a net income of $263 million, compared with its new announcement of $667 million. That’s an increase of around $0.96 per share.
A large part of this was an increase in profit by the wind and solar sector of the company. Here, profit rose from $72 million to $402 million.
The company reported that its wind turbines became more efficient in the past year, as analyst David Parker told Bloomberg:
“The wind assets performed stronger than expected and while in the fourth quarter the Florida economy wasn’t fantastic, it didn’t stop them from beating estimates by a few pennies.”
NextEra sells power to Florida Power & Light, which struggled with winter sales due to an unusually warm season.
But even still, demand was up 1.2% as Florida Power & Light gained clients in the fourth quarter.
NextEra is currently working on several wind projects with the help of a federal tax credit. The company is aiming to finish the projects within the next year before the credit expires.
NextEra was down 0.22% to $59.54 on Friday afternoon.
That’s all for now,
Brianna
