In this paper we use Noether symmetries of the geodesic Lagrangian in Bianchi V spacetimes to study various cosmological solutions of Einstein's field equations. Our first result is the identification of the subalgebras of Noether symmetries of the equations of motion in such spacetimes with dimension 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 or 10 of the maximal algebra of Lie point symmetries of dimension 13. Second, we give a physical interpretation of new cosmological solutions which satisfy the positive energy condition and yield critical bounds on the expansion coefficient α, in which the underlying nonflat spacetimes have interesting physical properties. Specifically the energy density behaves in one of the following ways. (i) It is positive and constant for all time. (ii) It varies with time and attains a global maximum after some time and then asymptotically converges to zero. (iii) It increases for all time and attains a maximum value at the asymptotic limit t → ∞. In particular a non-flat spacetime is obtained that mimics the expansion in a flat FRW universe dominated by vacuum energy such that the expansion factor has the same form in both. However, the energy density is dynamical in the former.