Over the past five years, hail damage has caused more than 50% of total insured project losses. Though infrequent, these events can produce record losses. In 2022, hail losses exceeded $300 million in Texas alone.

In this pv magazine Webinar, we will assess the risk of hail, and gain an understanding of the insurance marketplace for utility-scale solar assets.

Today, banks want to see higher levels of natural catastrophe coverage, while insurers want to limit coverage amounts. This mismatch “is an existential threat to project development activities in hail-prone regions.” This is particularly true in Texas, the largest utility-scale solar market in the nation.

Technical subject matter experts from VDE Americas, JinkoSolar, and Descartes Underwriting will explore three ways to close the severe storm insurability and finance gap. These strategies include deploying hail-hardened PV modules, engaging a technical advisor to quantify risks, and supplementing traditional insurance with parametric policies.

pv magazine Webinar content:

• Understand utility-scale solar hail risk
• Explore the finance and insurance mismatch in the market
• Review three strategies to address this gap and intelligently secure project insurance and finance
• Q&A

Questions can be submitted beforehand in the comments window when registering or in the chat during the live webinar. Ryan Kennedy, editor at pv magazine USA, will be the moderator of this webinar.

Registration for this pv magazine Webinar is free of charge. 

Speakers

John Sedgwick | President, VDE Americas

John is a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the renewable energy industry. In 2013, he co-founded VDE Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the VDE Group, where he serves as president and a member of the board of directors. John also directs the strategic development of VDE Americas’ award-winning natural catastrophe (NatCat) risk exposure advisory products, which specialize in hail and wind risk to solar assets and portfolios.In 2002, John co-founded Solaicx, a solar technology company that invented and commercialized a proprietary process for the continuous growth of high-quality silicon ingots. As the company’s EVP, John secured technology patents; negotiated a long-term supply agreement with SunPower; and later played a crucial role in selling the company to SunEdison (formerly MEMC).

Adam Detrick, US Director of Product Management and Technical Services at JinkoSolar

David Stamatis, Business Development at Descartes Underwriting

Moderators

Ryan Kennedy | Editor, pv magazine USA