Money for Nothing: Should Investors Get Excited About ... a Utility?

Utilities don't usually come to mind as an exciting investment -- but NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE), among other US utilities, is busting that stereotype. Its focus on renewable energy and innovation has paid off handsomely for itself and its shareholders over the last 10 years, as the company gets ever closer to turning sunlight and wind into, well, essentially free money.

Nextera Energy Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center

Utilities make money by generating and selling electricity. Because starting and running a utility requires massive investments in equipment, like generators and transmission lines, the utility must spread out those costs across many customers. So having many small utilities compete for customers would push electricity's prices up, rather than down. This makes utilities "natural monopolies," capable of potentially charging "whatever the market can bear" for their product and raking in outsize profits. But in utilities' case, governments usually intervene, capping how much a utility can charge its customers.

Source Fool.com