From hailstorms to human error: key insights from the Energy Insurance London conference
Nitya Kapadia
Intern
Renew Risk
Earlier in 2025, Renew Risk hosted a roundtable at the Energy Insurance London conference, bringing together industry leaders to discuss the risks posed to energy infrastructure, with a primary focus on solar power, offshore wind farms and other forms of renewables.
The EIL conference was a fitting platform to engage in these discussions, as its attendees are the key industry players who can facilitate and finance the energy transition. A truly insightful session, the roundtable revealed the persevering perceptions industry leaders have on the various subjects. This productive discussion on the risks renewable energy assets face was not only incredibly topical to today’s climate, but it also highlights Renew Risk’s imbued conviction to future proof these critical elements of infrastructure.
Solar energy and climate change
The session began with a discussion on solar farms and which threats - such as cyber risk, attritional loss, and natural catastrophes - attendees consider most critical. The consensus? Natural catastrophes. However, there was added nuance that the most significant perceived risks were hail and wind. Considering hailstorms in the US cost the insurance industry over $50 billion in 2023 alone, it is unsurprising that this peril is emerging as a large obstacle for underwriters.
The conversation progressed to climate change; a topic not often considered in the insurance world. This provoked a new line of questioning: in an age of rising temperatures, what does this mean for the heat tolerances of solar technology? Recent academic studies show that the output of photovoltaic modules (i.e. solar panels) decrease 0.5% for every degree above 25°C the panel is exposed to. With climate change expected to increase temperatures across the globe, it raises serious question about long-term planning and solar panel performance.
0.5%
reduction in solar panel output for every °C of overheating.
80%
of offshore wind farm insurance claims are related to cable loss.
$50bn
insured losses from severe convective storms in 2023.
Changing the game
The roundtable then began to discuss what additional information could improve pricing for renewable energy insurance. Unanimously, the attendees agreed upon better claims data. As a newer form of infrastructure, the claims data for renewables is limited and is often dispersed across multiple organisations. The resulting difficulties in pricing were echoed around the roundtable. One speaker highlighted how current models are typically based on traditional phenomena like earthquakes and tornadoes, rather than the full scope of weather events. This is problematic. In the US, hail and storms have been causing the most losses by far; tornadoes and earthquakes led to combined losses of $45m from 2018-2025, while hail and storms saw losses of ~$415m. This highlights the urgent need to update the industry’s risk modelling practices.
Another attendee inspired widespread agreement by suggesting that not only is greater claims data needed, but greater analysis of claims data is needed too, to provide a greater understanding of the root causes of an extreme weather event. Building on this conversation, a novel idea was then raised, when one attendee argued to additionally increase access to data on when assets have been functioning correctly. Typically, detailed information on renewable energy assets is excluded from renewables risk modelling, diminishing the accuracy of the model, as each different renewable asset site has a unique layout and a unique functionality. Renew Risk is cognizant of this issue, and stands as the only firm which provides risk insights specifically for renewables.
We asked the roundtable:
“What is the biggest threat to solar farms?”
[hover for answers]
Offshore wind farms
At half-time, Renew Risk’s roundtable hosts shifted the conversation away from solar energy and towards offshore wind farms. This saw a corresponding shift in attitudes too. While the solar discussion inspired unanimous agreement that natural catastrophes are the most significant risk to the renewable energy asset, the wind discussion caused disagreement. Instead, some roundtable attendees ranked human error as the biggest risk to offshore wind farms, specifically when it culminates in cable loss. Whether through a design defect or damage incurred during manufacturing or installation, cable loss accounts for around 80% of offshore wind farm insurance claims, demonstrating its significance to the industry. Delving deeper into the root cause of this human error, some professionals argued that this correlated with timeline pressures and increased competition requiring developers to install or upgrade turbines before they are ready, or have sufficient capacity, to do so.
In addition to varying infrastructure, roundtable attendees were keen to explore the impact of location on risk exposure. For example, it was posited that the offshore wind industry does not know how to cope with typhoons. There are 3-4 typhoons a year in Taiwan, but none have ever critically hit a wind farm directly. Rather than attributing this to strategic planning, one roundtable attendee suggested that this is the industry’s pure luck. As climate change drives up typhoon severity, this is an increasingly worrying issue. However, due to the ‘no-claims’ mindset of the insurance market, until an asset is affected, there is no incentive to change current methodology. Consequently, assets will be left underinsured, ultimately shifting risk onto those who are ill-equipped to bear it.
Location also poses risks to offshore wind farm repair and asset replacement, driving up the cost of business interruption. At the roundtable, this difficulty resulted in mixed levels of approval for the efficacy of offshore wind farms, with some suggesting that other forms of renewable energy production should be prioritised instead.
Looking to the future
Looking ahead, there was much discussion about where future offshore wind farms will even be built. Unsurprisingly, siting is not based on natural catastrophe frequency, but based on geopolitics. The table predicted that the likes of China and South Korea will see an increase in offshore wind auctions, while others advocated for Australia, due its abundance of land and sun. While China is presently the global leader in the number of operational offshore wind farms, the growth of the other countries would mark a large shift in the existing dispersion of sites, as UK, Vietnam and Germany currently trail behind China.
In summation, the roundtable offered plentiful and fruitful discussions on the future of renewable energy assets. While there was a myriad of opinions, the discussion also presented a clear path on how the industry can improve. There was a consensus that there is a reactive mode of thinking in insurance, rather than a proactive mindset that addresses root causes. Thus, despite the clarity the discussion provided, delivering change will require greater data sharing and, potentially, a natural catastrophe so large, industry professionals will be forced to learn from experience.
Renew Risk would like to thank the roundtable attendees for sharing their insights; their contributions made for a productive and thought-provoking session. As a firm, we were incredibly heartened to see how the ideas we have been implementing into our own products, such as having a greater focus on modelling the risks that renewables are most exposed to, as well as factoring in the unique parameters involved in renewables rather than relying on traditional models focused on property, were key topics of discussion for attendees. It was truly a wonderful roundtable, leaving plenty food for thought.
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