Shares digital

If the UK Government is going to meet its aspirations of generating 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010 it will need companies like Novera Energy (NVE:AIM) to keep announcing positive progress, such as its recent trading update. Full-year generation was up to 564 GigaWatt hours – from 547GWH the year before – netting the company revenues of £34.4 million.

More capacity will be added this year with construction of its 30MW wind farm in Lisset underway, and production due to start in December. A further four wind farms are also in planning, which could add a further 78-91MW to its portfolio. ‘The wind sites we have in planning, together with a further 320MW in the pre-planning phase, position us well to deliver at least our 250MW target for wind capacity by 2011,’ says ceo David Fitzsimmons.

The company is also developing a 10MW biomass plant in East London which won a boost from last year’s Energy white paper which suggested that the Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) awarded to this type of generation should double. ROCs can be sold on to other suppliers who do not have enough certificates of their own to meet the Government’s Renewables Obligations targets.

Shares in the company dropped from highs around 74.5p last year to a low of 54p in January but have since started to tick back up to 57p on the back of the positive news.

Shares says: Its shares look to have bottomed and are worth holding as its projects progress.