Blog

London, Sept. 11, 2023—Global (re)insurer Ariel Re has relaunched its Clean Energy division as Ariel Green, recognizing the increasingly crucial role of Technology Performance Insurance in accelerating innovation in solar, energy storage, hydrogen, and bioenergy to help curb climate change.

Ariel Re has insured $30bn worth of assets on six continents, covering over 30 clean energy technologies. That includes 100+ GW of solar warranties, a milestone reached this year.

Technology Performance Insurance policies protect against production shortfalls caused by technology failures, enabling manufacturers to issue long-term warranties and clean energy projects to secure funding, successfully start up, get built, and operate profitably. This allows lower-cost capital providers to manage aggregation risk in commercialized technologies and participate in innovative projects without applying a risk premium.

“Especially in today’s high-interest market, we believe that performance insurance offers technology manufacturers and developers a powerful differentiator that can help them reassure investors, obtain financing on better terms, and increase speed to market,” said Jan Napiorkowski, Ariel Green’s Managing Director, who pioneered Technology Performance Insurance in 2009.

“As the world strives to reach Net Zero, we’re responding to the increasing need to finance the trillions required to make the transition to clean energy,” Napiorkowski said. “And as more clean energy projects come online, legacy fossil fuel facilities can be shuttered, and their emissions abated.”

Ariel Re has offered clean energy Technology Performance Insurance since 2016 through its Syndicate 1910 at Lloyd’s. Over the past seven years, this ‘niche’ business has experienced strong growth, expanding with interest and investment in a wide range of renewables and clean energy projects, including solar, energy storage, biofuels, waste-to-energy, hydrogen, and fuel cells, among other technologies.

Napiorkowski said Ariel Green’s value to the industry is built on the technical and financial expertise that its team of specialized underwriters brings to projects, and the way they collaborate with clients to develop customized solutions. “We’re well-equipped to deploy insurance capital and support the industry’s largest projects with meaningful risk transfer,” he said.

Ryan Mather, CEO of Ariel Re, commented on the business case for continuing to strengthen the firm’s offerings: “We offer to our capital providers a variety of uncorrelated, highly-tailored risk classes, and Ariel Green brings a very strong value proposition, both in terms of technical underwriting expertise and in improving their ESG footprint—our capital really likes that.”

“Offering debt tenor matching, non-cancellable Lloyd’s policies shows that Ariel is a thoughtful, consistent, and predictable long-term partner for our brokers and clients,” Mather said.

“Our new brand will enable us to communicate more effectively to the wider clean energy markets,” Napiorkowski added. “Despite our success to date, we feel that we are only scratching the surface as many tech companies, project developers and investors remain unaware of Technology Performance Insurance, and how it can help them backstop warranties, secure financing for projects or enable mergers and acquisitions.”