Renew Risk extends severe convective storm modelling to solar farms across 48 US States‍ ‍

The extension comes as the US solar fleet grows in size and value. Developers plan to add a record 43.4GW of utility-scale solar capacity in 2026, 60% more than in 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration. As solar farms are built in new locations, at a larger scale, and with new features such as panel stow and tracking, Renew Risk’s focus on energy transition assets lets it keep pace by building those changes into the model through seasonal updates.

Sites are larger than ever, more costly to build and repair, and being built closer together. For insurers, that raises the risk that a single storm could damage several sites in the same portfolio. Severe convective storms already drive major losses for the sector, with hailstorms representing 6% of loss incidents for US solar farms but 73% of financial losses according to a kWh 2025 report.

The model gives insurers, reinsurers and brokers:

• Coverage across the contiguous US for all three perils: modelling hail, tornadoes and straight-line wind for solar farms in all 48 mainland states.

• High-resolution hazard data: built on a large and detailed dataset at 1k resolution.

• Asset-level vulnerability: reflecting engineering characteristics such as panel construction, tracker systems and stow logic.

• Seasonal updates: incorporating new insights as solar farms are built in new locations and with new features.

Catastrophe models typically look for low-frequency, high-intensity events such as hurricanes, whereas hailstorms are high-frequency, lower-intensity, and hyper-localised. Solar farms are particularly exposed because their panels are made largely of glass, and loss history is limited because sites are often built in remote areas. Even so, many insurers place solar farms in Hail Alley, the central US region with the country’s most frequent hailstorms.

Renew Risk first prioritised hail modelling for the highest-risk States. However, tornadoes and derechos, long-lived windstorms that bring widespread straight-line wind damage, have caused several of the largest SCS insurance losses. Namely the Midway Solar project, which suffered an estimated $70m in losses, and Fighting Jays Solar Farm, which experienced losses that reached the $50m sublimit. The model now covers all three perils across the contiguous US. It draws on research papers Renew Risk’s team has written on solar farm risk, and on the company’s work with Vāyuh, which combines physics and AI to model severe convective storms.