It appears that 'Nova' is a commercial name given for Vriesea gigantea var. seideliana. A 'clone' indicates it's from an offset grown from the straight species, it will probably be reproduced then from tissue culture.
Vriesea gigantea var. seideliana aka 'Nova'. A spectacular clone of the original Brazilian species 'gigantea'
http://www.bromeliad.com/gr-vr...
Your plant from 5 years ago does look the same, it seems the parent traits come out with some not being so variegated which in turn suggests some may be grown from seed. It often happens as growing from seed is cheaper but doesn't give the same results as tissue culture.
Scroll down the list and you will find Vriesea cultivars, use the 'find on this page' typing in nova, there's other crosses with Nova but Nova is said to be a cultivar. This brings into doubt what is said about Nova being a clone.
http://fcbs.org/pictures/Vries...
Nova has a lot of dark maroon/red on it (states only one seed parent so is seed grown with unknown second parent) , I would still say yours is more likely to be Vriesea gigantea var. seideliana.
http://fcbs.org/cgi-bin/dbman/...
There is also 'Green Nova' which your one from 5 years ago could be, it's 'Nova x Nova' ..
http://fcbs.org/cgi-bin/dbman/...
