By 
While many companies have pledged to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions with “net zero” plans that involve buying carbon credits, America’s largest power company is attempting something quite different: “real zero.”
NextEra Energy Inc.
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-4.61%,
the owner of Florida Power & Light and one of the world’s biggest renewable energy developers, is set to announce Tuesday that it plans to make most of its operations completely carbon-free by 2045, by building huge solar farms and converting its power plants to run on hydrogen fuel.
No major U.S. utility company to date has committed to near-total decarbonization without the use of offsets or carbon-capture technology. The strategy represents a big gamble for new NextEra Chief Executive John Ketchum, who earlier this year succeeded longtime CEO Jim Robo at a particularly difficult time for the U.S. electricity sector.
Utilities across the country are grappling with higher fuel
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+0.81%
and labor costs, while renewable-energy and battery-storage developers face equipment and materials shortages that have delayed billions of dollars in projects and made them more expensive to build.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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