Hail damage accounts for about half of all solar facility loss claims, says GCube

From pv magazine USA

GCube Insurance, an underwriter for renewable energy projects, said that about 54% of incurred costs of total solar losses can be attributed to hail, despite being only 1.4% of the total number of claims filed. This is based on data collected by Gcube over the past five years. Average costs totaled $58 million per claim.

It said this risk is being underestimated by solar asset owners, causing a gap between insurance requirements for solar projects and what is available in the market and leading to project delays and cancellations.

GCube insures more than 100 GW of renewables projects in 40 countries.

Other leading insurance risks include fires (16% of claims and 20% of total costs) and electrical failures (19% of total claims and 3.5% of total costs), based on five years of GCube data.

The insurance underwriter said in pursuit of a reduced levlized cost of electricity (LCOE), solar manufacturers have adopted larger, thinner modules with more fragile surface glass, leading to increased hail risk.

“Hail damage risk is undermining the security of solar power as a prominent clean energy solution,” said Fraser McLachlan, chief executive officer of GCube Insurance. “We therefore have an overriding imperative to develop solutions to this challenge and restore our ability as insurers to provide the sector with long term risk underwriting.”

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