ASX renewable energy shares have been an area that has been attracting an enormous amount of investors attention over the past few years. With the upcoming transition to sourcing energy from renewable sources, many investors are keen to get in front of this trend, and find the energy winners of tomorrow.
Whilst the renewable energy space has seen its fair share of twists and turns over the 20201 financial year that has just passed us by, it has still been a very interesting 12 months for this exciting sector. So let's check out how the major ASX renewable energy shares have performed over the 12 months to 30 June 2021:
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How some of the most popular ASX renewable energy shares have performed in FY21:
| ASX renewable energy share | FY2021 share price performance | Market capitalisation |
|---|---|---|
| Tilt Renewables Ltd (ASX: TLT) | 121.1% | $2.85 billion |
| Infratil Ltd (ASX: IFT) | 66.7% | $5.23 billion |
| Mercury NZ Ltd (ASX: MCY) | 42.1% | $8.8 billion |
| Contact Energy Limited (ASX: CEN) | 32.3% | $6.36 billion |
| Genesis Energy Ltd (ASX: GNE) | 19.2% | $3.51 billion |
| Meridian Energy Ltd (ASX: MEZ) | 7.6% | $12.43 billion |
| Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX: SKI) | 4.2% | $4 billion |
| New Energy Solar Ltd (ASX: NEW) | (27.9%) | $298.4 million |
| AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL) | (52%) | $5.1 billion |
As you can see, the winning ASX renewable energy share for FY21 was Tilt Renewables. Tilt owns a portfolio of solar and wind farms across Australia and New Zealand. Tilt managed to put up some relatively pleasing numbers in its May full-year results.
But perhaps the biggest driver of the Tilt share price over the 2021 financial year was its suitors. Over the past year or so, Tilt has been sought after for a full takeover by both major shareholder Infratil, and Mercury NZ. Offers from both companies came out over the past 12 months, and each one gave a huge boost to the Tilt share price. Tilt shares are still on the ASX in their own right, but perhaps not for too much longer. This pursual of Tilt has also seemingly given both the Infratil and Mercury NZ share price boosts of their own, something we covered in depth back in February.
Shocks and awe
However, with Contact Energy we had a company that seemed to solely benefit from its earnings numbers over FY21. Back in January, the company got a massive share price boost when it released its monthly operating report. A big jump in the price per megawatt hour (MWh) that Contact received for its electricity generation seemed to be what got investors excited. Although the Contact share price spent the rest of the financial year retreating from the highs it saw in January, the company still managed a healthy 32.3% gain for FY21. We saw a similar occurrence with the Genesis Energy share price.
Finally, it's worth mentioning the elephant in the room, AGL Energy. Although AGL is a long way from a pure renewables company, it is taking steps in this direction. Not only does AGL have a growing portfolio of renewable generation sets, but it's also planning on splitting itself into two companies. However, AGL's share price woes over FY21 largely stem from falling wholesale electricity prices, as well as the declining value of its fossil fuel-powered generation assets. At its current share price ($8.14 at the time of writing), you'd have to go back to 2004 to find the last time AGL was at its current levels. Ouch.
