Best Canadian Renewable Stocks In Canada For January 2023

Renewable energy is good for the planet and can be good for your portfolio as well. Since it’s also in the early stages of development, there is a potential to earn more money by investing early.

In fact, the time is now to focus on renewable energy as we have reached peak oil according to Bloomberg. With the new US administration friendly towards renewable energy, there will be many more projects.

On a separate note, they expect the cost of eletric cars to match the ICE cars in a couple of years as battery technology is improving.

Now, while there are pure play renewable stocks, you should know that all the big players in the utility sector are actively pursuing renewable energy.

They are much bigger and could probably buy the pure play renewable energy stocks. You should not ignore them and understand what their strategy is when it comes to clean energy.

What Is a Renewable Energy Company

Before we look into investing in clean energy, let’s identify what consists of renewable energy. Renewable energy comes from natural resources that cannot be depleted such as water, solar rays or wind to name a few.

The most common renewable energy resources are hydropower, solar, wind and geothermal. In Canada, hydropower already consists of 59% of the electricity generation.

As you can guess, all Canadian utility stocks have some clean energy but are not exclusively focused on clean energy but are putting plans together to reduce non-clean energy to reduce green gas emissions.

Other sources of renewable energy consist of:

• Biodiesel
• Ethanol
• Solar
• Tidal
• Wind

Considerations for Choosing Renewable Energy Stocks

Unlike a regular utility stock, renewable stocks need to be looked at from a potential perspective. They don’t feed the massive population just yet.

They don’t reach homes the way Emera, Fortis, or Hydro One do. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp only servers 750,000 customers across 12 US states. In comparison, Fortis servers 3.3 millions customers across all subsidiaries.

Generally speaking, when investing in stocks, you have a 3 part analysis:

• Quantitative Analysis – 40% of your analysis
• Qualitative Analysis – 40% of your analysis
• Insights – 20% of your analysis (My tollbooth analysis comes to play here)

But in the case of renewable energy stocks, you need to increase your insight and that’s a tough one. Since they need to use clean energy to serve their customers, it’s not all acquisitions that fit the bill and it’s not easy to setup clean energy infrastructure where it’s needed.

There are a couple of ways I can think of a renewable energy company can grow and it’s through acquisition or clean energy development. One is much easier than the other and much faster. I expect to see consolidation but a proper investment in clean energy infrastructure is important for their business and it takes time to develop and see the fruit of labor.

The flip side of the investment thesis, can a regular utility catch up and change their fossil fuel energy production to a clean solution? Can they do it faster than the pure play clean energy stocks?

All Utility Stocks

As mentioned earlier, have a look at all the utility stocks before you just focus on the pure play clean energy stocks. Here is the list of Canadian utility stocks sorted by market capitalization.

Most of them are involved in the transformation but still profit from other sources.

Top 3 Renewable Energy Stocks

Going by the Dividend Snapshot Opportunity Score – a pure quantitative approach – the following are the top Canadian bank stocks. When the score is within a 5 to 10 point range, that’s when you really need to review the qualitative aspect of the company.

Before we identify the top 3 stocks, here is the complete list of dividend renewable energy stocks.

1. Brookfield Renewable Partners

Brookfield Renewable Corporation is a globally diversified owner and operator of renewable energy assets. It is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, a major global infrastructure company, having a 60% ownership in the firm.

It has over 100 years of experience in power generation and is one of the largest public pure-play renewable energy businesses globally. Hydroelectric power constitutes the majority of Brookfield’s portfolio (75% of the operating portfolio), followed by wind and solar energy (balance 25%).

The firm owns power assets worth $47 billion, 880 generating facilities and a renewable energy capacity of more than 17,400 MW. Brookfield Renewable Corporation’s large portfolio of assets located across politically stable countries and growing demand for renewable energy power sources are its biggest strengths.

Key Investment Data

2. Northland Power

Northland Power is a power producer that develops, builds, owns, and operates clean and green power infrastructure assets in Canada, Europe, and other global markets.

As one of Canada's first independent power producers, Northland Power has global operating facilities generating over 2.6 GW of electricity, with an additional 130 MW of generating capacity under construction and 1,100+ MW in the project pipeline.

Northland has in-house development, plant design, financing, and operations capabilities. The company has a long track record of more than three decades in the business of producing electricity from natural gas and renewable energy sources. 

Key Investment Data

3. Innergex Renewable Energy

Innergex is a leading Canadian independent renewable power producer that engages in the development, ownership, and operation of hydroelectric facilities, wind farms, and solar farms. The company has operations in Canada, France, the U.S., and Chile which are also its geographic segments.

Innergex owns interests in a total of 75 facilities including 37 hydroelectric facilities, 32 wind farms, and six solar farms. The company has a well-balanced portfolio diversified by both location and technology.

Its operating segments are hydroelectric (29% of net installed capacity in 2020), wind (57%), and solar (14%) power generation having a gross installed capacity of 3,694 MW.

Key Investment Data

Opportunity Score Formula

The top stocks identified above are based on a score calculated using a number of financial data points from the companies. In the end, the score is generated from following five key indicators:

• 52-Week Range: Trend over the past 52 weeks. Is the stock pulling back from a 52 week high?
• P/E Ratio: Is the stock price running away from its earnings?
• Revenue Growth: Is the revenue growing? Growing revenue is important. We don't want to be fooled by share buybacks and cost management only.
• Dividend Yield: Is the yield attractive? Usually could identify a pullback if the yield starts to go up or major trouble if it goes too high.
• Dividend Growth: Uses dividend growth and the Chowder Rule. Is the company capable of growing the dividend consistently?
• Dividend Payout Ratio: Uses historical averages to put today's ratio in perspective. Is the company able to grow the dividend at the same rate it increases its earnings?

The generated score is meant to assess an entry point opportunity based on historical and today's numbers. It completely ignores the business quality, the quality of the company is for every investor to assess. My stock selection process breaks down the quantitative and qualitative assessments investors should establish to pull the trigger before buying.

If you are interested in more details, the Dividend Snapshot Screener provides many more data points to help make your investment decision.

Dividend growth investing works and you can generate a healthy retirement income but you have to buy individual stocks. If you are not comfortable with holding individual stocks, you can always buy dividend ETFs or consider different passive income ideas to generate a retirement income.

Renewable Energy Stock FAQs