NextEra Energy wants to buy its way into Data Center Alley

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Two utility companies are headed for a megamerger — with dubious benefits to residential customers and clean energy.

This week, Florida utility giant NextEra Energy — the country’s top renewable energy developer, and a major gas plant builder — announced plans to acquire Dominion Energy, which serves Virginia and the Carolinas. If the firms secure state and federal approvals, they’d become the world’s largest regulated utility and the third-biggest energy company in the U.S.

The colossal consolidation has a clear impetus: data centers. Dominion is tasked with delivering power to what’s known as ​“Data Center Alley,” but as former U.S. Energy Department official Jigar Shah told E&E News, the utility has failed to adopt grid enhancements and other technologies that would help it do so. NextEra isn’t scooping up Dominion for that outdated grid; it’s ​“buying the keys to America’s data center capital,” Shah wrote on LinkedIn.

So what does it all mean for customers? The utilities are promising $2.25 billion in bill credits for Dominion ratepayers, more investments in power reliability, and large-load tariffs to ensure data center demand doesn’t raise residential power bills.

But environmental and consumer advocates are skeptical. NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light has a ​“deeply troubling track record” of alleged ​“election manipulation, surveillance of journalists, co-optation of civil rights organizations and the use of dark money networks to capture regulators and defeat energy competition,” says the nonprofit Clean Virginia. The Energy and Policy Institute notes that Florida Power & Light customers have faced years of rate increases even as the utility pulls in record profits, and highlights Dominion’s history of massive political spending.

Plus, while NextEra has led the way on building solar and battery storage — tech that can be brought online much more quickly than gas plants — both it and Dominion have gigawatts of polluting fossil-fueled development in the works.

All those concerns will likely come up as the deal seeks regulatory approvals.

NextEra has already been lobbying to get on the Trump administration’s good side, including via inauguration and ballroom contributions. The merger’s toughest scrutiny may instead come from states, which have blocked NextEra’s attempts at acquiring three other utilities over the past few years. With energy affordability concerns and opposition to data centers already rising to a fever pitch, regulators in Virginia and beyond may just keep NextEra stuck in the present day.

More big energy stories

EVs fall flat in the U.S. — but soar elsewhere

The U.S. EV market isn’t looking too hot at the moment. But zoom out to a global viewpoint, and you’ve got a whole other story.

A report from the International Energy Agency out Wednesday affirms what I told you about last week: EV sales are on fire in many parts of the world. In the first quarter of 2026, they were 75% higher in Latin America and 30% higher in Europe, compared with the same period last year. That’s just the start of a surge, as some countries are responding to the ongoing oil crisis by expanding EV incentives. The IEA predicts the world will buy a record 23 million EVs throughout 2026 — that’s one electric car out of every three vehicles sold.

But in the U.S., the end of federal EV tax credits has taken its toll, Rhodium Group’s latest Clean Investment Monitor shows. EV investments, which include retail sales, plummeted in the last three months of 2025 after the incentives expired, and stayed flat through the first quarter of 2026.

Batteries are solving renewables’ fundamental flaw

The U.S. keeps building more batteries — and they’ve never been more important.

The country installed 9.7 gigawatt-hours of battery storage in the first three months of 2026, according to a report out Thursday from the Solar Energy Industries Association and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. That’s a record for the first quarter of the year, and progress isn’t slowing down. Analysts expect that by 2030, the U.S. will be installing 110 GWh of batteries every year.

Another fresh report from the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals just how valuable these electricity storage systems have become. As you’ve no doubt heard, wind and solar have a fundamental flaw: They can’t produce power all the time. That’s long held them back from being a 24/7 source of power, but as Canary Media’s Julian Spector reports, batteries are solving that intermittency issue by storing power for when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing. Even better? They’re doing so at a cost that’s competitive with, and in many cases lower than, new gas power plants.

Clean energy news to know this week

Coal order in the court: The Trump administration argues to a panel of federal judges that it has unilateral authority to declare an ​“energy emergency” and force retiring coal plants to stay open, a claim the state of Michigan and environmentalists are fighting. (Inside Climate News)

Solar struggle: A Vermont town’s fight against a solar farm is just one example of how the state’s ambitious renewable energy goals are butting up against concerns about losing its rural character. (Canary Media)

Building clean: A new American Clean Power Association report expects the U.S. clean energy manufacturing industry will include more than 950 factories supporting 374,000 jobs by 2030, up from 825 plants and 215,000 jobs today. (report)

Solar’s gigascale future: The world’s biggest solar projects are now being measured in gigawatts rather than megawatts, showing how the shrinking price of panels is enabling development that would’ve sounded inconceivable just a few years ago. (Canary Media)

Air grievances: California’s top air regulator wants to overhaul the state’s cap-and-invest program, but lawmakers and environmentalists say the proposed changes would put state decarbonization goals out of reach. (Canary Media)

Home green home: Berkeley, California, implements a rule that leverages real estate transactions to reduce carbon emissions by requiring home sellers and buyers to replace natural gas appliances with electric ones as a condition of sale. (Bloomberg)

Winds of change: Two Massachusetts port cities that were counting on the expected offshore wind boom for an economic boost are now struggling to change course as the industry falters. (CommonWealth Beacon)