Energizing the Future at NextEra
Jacob presenting at NextEra. Photo credit: Jacob Hyppolite II.
I came to the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business aiming to develop the financial acumen necessary to leave my mark on the sustainability field. With a strong background in environmental policy and renewable energy, I realized the impact I could make through scaling renewable energy to reach climate goals. Knowing this, I sought out an MBA that would allow me to organize my focus around organizational sustainability and how to develop strategies that help private-sector firms achieve financial success while serving stakeholders and the planet. Through classroom learning at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and programs including the Semlitz Family Sustainability Fellows, I have been able to explore these interests and prepare myself to make a sustainable impact in the world. My summer at NextEra Energy Resources provided me with the opportunity to bring that passion to life.
NextEra is an international leader in renewable energy generation and battery storage. While attending the Consortium orientation program, I learned about NextEra’s commitment to lasting sustainable change. In 2022, NextEra announced its Real Zero plan, committing to eliminating carbon emissions from its operations by 2045. Excited to apply what I’ve learned at the Johnson School at a company that matches my goals and interests, I eagerly joined NextEra for a summer internship.
Innovation in the utility space
The goal of my internship was to develop a financial tool that would help Florida Power and Light (FPL) optimize its voluntary offerings to reach more families. FPL is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and a major U.S. electric utility. The tool needed to be replicable and have high visibility through deployment throughout FPL following my internship. Working on such a visible project not only allowed me to apply the skill sets I developed through the Johnson School, but also positioned me to network with senior leadership.
One tool I worked on was the FPL EVolution home, a smart electric vehicle charger with unlimited night, weekend, and holiday charging—powered solely by renewable energy—at a flat monthly rate. These offerings enable FPL to strengthen customer relationships. However, FPL wanted to provide such offerings more efficiently. My role was to build the financial model to help them do so.
I had to determine a host of things: How much capital expenditure is necessary to deploy a potential voluntary offering? What are the retained earnings for a voluntary offering under a regulated, unregulated, or demand-side management design structure? Financially, how would this voluntary offering affect the bills of participants versus non-participants of these programs? These were just a few of the questions my financial model needed to be able to answer to ensure scalability across FPL. I also leveraged my understanding of concepts such as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), different ways to build a discounted cash flow model, and how to determine the selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses of different products. The ability to transform this knowledge from classroom theory to real-world impact defined my MBA experience.
Reflection
Working at NextEra gave me a greater appreciation for the qualities necessary to invest confidently in sustainable practices. While meeting with senior leadership regularly during my internship, lessons from the course Critical and Strategic Thinking, taught by Risa Mish, professor of practice and the Day Family Senior Lecturer in Business Ethics, guided me in managing relationships and asking the right questions to ensure I delivered to expectations. The Sustainable Global Enterprise Club and Cornell Energy Club regularly brought in speakers and hosted workshops that prepared me to manage important tasks.
I came to the Johnson School determined to land a role that allowed me to put my passion for energy transition to the test. What I got was something even better: an opportunity to actualize what I’ve been learning through a project that directly allows customers to engage in sustainable offerings in a financially viable manner for companies.
About the author
Jacob Hyppolite II is a 2025 graduate of the Two-Year MBA program in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Hyppolite was part of the inaugural cohort of Semlitz Family Sustainability Fellows in 2024. Prior to Cornell, he received his master’s in environmental studies from the University of Pennsylvania, concentrating on renewable energy and environmental policy, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida. He previously worked as a data scientist at Digital Media Solutions.