| Symbol | Last | Change |
|---|---|---|
| FVR.V | 0.165 | 0.000 |
Renewing what’s possible
Stock Update
Five public companies have emerged as winners in the first stage of British Columbia’s “clean power call” that selected green energy projects to supply the province’s future energy needs.
March 16, 2010
Five public companies have emerged as winners in the first stage of British Columbia’s “clean power call” that selected green energy projects to supply the province’s future energy needs.
Late last week, British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro) announced 19 projects that will get power purchase agreements – five wind farms and the rest runof-river hydro projects. Among the 10 firms that won contracts, half are traded on either the main Toronto Stock Exchange or the TSX Venture Exchange.
The B.C. process was long, subject to many months of delays, and involved complex negotiations with the individual companies and affected first nations communities. But now the decision is in, the winning firms can go ahead with development plans over the next few years.
The province intends to sign power purchase agreements for about 5,000 gigawatt hours of clean power in total, and last week’s selection amounts to just about half of that – enough to supply about 218,000 homes. Another group will get the good news before the end of March.
Here are the public companies that won in the first round, and how the decision affected their stock performance:
>> Finavera Renewables Inc. A few years ago, Finavera spent most of its efforts developing technology to get power from ocean waves. A series of technical and financial setbacks forced it to refocus on wind power. The company came out of the B.C. power call with approval for four of its wind projects – fully one-third the value of all contracts awarded. All four are in Northeastern B.C. and will be built between 2012 and 2014.
“This is without a doubt the biggest win for the company in its history,” Scotia Capital analyst Ben Isaacson said. “This is real meat on the bones for them – these are bankable projects.”
Finavera’s stock showed the biggest jump of any of the companies that won B.C. contracts. It more than doubled in price Friday after the announcement, hitting 18 cents before falling back. Still, it is well below its 2007 high of 90 cents a share.