Head of Ariel Green welcomes support for pre-disaster insurance solutions by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance
‘We can boost climate finance by spreading the word about technology performance insurance,’ Ariel Green managing director Jan Napiorkowski says
MOMENTUM is building for insurance as a driver of climate finance, with technology performance insurance gaining ground as a pre-disaster solution, according to Ariel Green’s managing director, Jan Napiorkowski.
Ariel Green, a division of reinsurer Ariel Re, provides investment-grade TPI to ensure clean energy projects secure financing at competitive rates to facilitate their construction and de-risk their operation.
This role has received a boost, Napiorkowski says in an interview with Insurance Day, from the fourth report of the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, which was published last November. The report — Delivering an integrated climate finance agenda in support of the Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.5T — is full of references to insurance.
“The fourth report is a fantastic next stage in the evolution of climate finance because it shows that insurance… And it doesn’t associate insurers only with risk transfer or post-disaster relief but also acknowledges it as a form of pre-disaster contingent capital,” he adds.
Ariel Green’s mission, therefore, is to increase awareness of new insurance products that support climate finance by “spreading the word” about TPIs. “TPI is pre-disaster contingent capital that enables the funding of technologies designed to mitigate climate change,” Napiorkowski says.
Supply creates demand
Ariel Green deploys capital to the clean energy industry through customised long-term and non-cancellable TPI risk management solutions, and supports energy storage, waste-to-energy, fuel cells, electrolysers and solar projects by backstopping supplier warranties or guaranteeing project production levels. Ariel Re brings its reinsurance and Lloyd’s underwriting expertise and collaborative approach to developing insurance products that enable clean energy projects to “secure financing, get built and begin operations”.
“Many financial institutions know about TPIs is very critical for renewable energy projects, but most of them still aren’t getting into renewable energy projects simply because they don’t know the existence of technology performance insurance”
Napiorkowski says the TPI market is growing thanks to the somewhat unusual situation of “supply creating demand” and Ariel Green has been able to grow its consortium members to 11, having added Tokio Marine HCC Re and GIC Syndicate from January 1. It also received “many more members” for bioconversion and waste-to-energy projects last year.
The absence of the TPI market (for bioconversion and waste-to-energy projects) last year was a blow, because brokers were “more comfortable” with German reinsurers’ multiple TPIs competition, but Ariel Green has nevertheless been able to increase its notional risk limit of the consortium from $150mn to $222mn in the past 12 months.
That increase “from a pool of 11 markets” is good for diluting the “increase in appetite” because we have a very uncorrelated book of different types of policies for different underlying technologies,” Napiorkowski says. The consortium wants to “try and bear alone” for the long term, he stresses, and able to shoulder losses that no single company wants to try and bear alone.
TPI and clean energy
Ariel Green caters to the whole gambit of investors in renewable energy projects, from banks to private equity companies, who understand that the growth in clean energy technologies relies on de-risking assets.
One of these is Clairvest Group, the Canadian private equity management firm. Ariel Re insures the contractual performance guarantees with NovaSource Power Services, which Clairsvest acquired NovaSource in 2020 from SunPower Corporation.
At the end of last year, Ariel Green announced it had provided insurance coverage for Elite Solar, for its solar module performance warranty for up to 30 years.
Ariel Green’s TPI provides financial protection to buyers even in the unlikely event of a manufacturer default, even after a supplier bankruptcy.
He explains: “Financial institutions know that equipment suppliers with long-term performance guarantees must build up significant reserves on those balance sheets to be able to fulfil their obligations under their warranties.
”“Auditors require them to build up those reserves and insurance is a very efficient way of releasing some of the reserves they’re paying that there is cash for operations, but in return they’re getting a policy that is bigger than their reserves in the event of a product recall or product defect,” TPI is not a credit insurance policy, Napiorkowski stresses, and does not directly insure against manufacturer insolvency.
TPI does not cover physical damage to equipment, such as hail landing on solar panels; he continues, and is instead focused on a project’s ability to generate electricity from renewable energy sources. Equipment tilt vertically to avoid the path of hailstones, he says, such as trackers that make solar panels weather resilient, but not as a consequence of physical damage.
“When we insure a solar project, we recognise that equipment project repair or replace underperforming components is inevitable over a 30-year operating life. The purpose of TPI coverage is to ensure the project can continue delivering its guaranteed output, rather than face prolonged shutdowns,” Napiorkowski says.
Politically agnostic
Partnering with trusted solar module manufacturers like Elite Solar aligns with Ariel Green’s mission to expand its solar coverage in the US facing pushback and uncertainty under the current administration. With climate policy in flux, TPI can provide long-term stability to project developers and owners.
“We’re completely agnostic about politics, but there was an urgency to proceed with projects and secure tax credits before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Napiorkowski says.
Signed in July 2025, the bill is a major legislative package affecting 2026 taxes and spending. Although it does not include support for “semi-renewable” types, Napiorkowski adds. These include, for example, fuel cells and electrolysers.
The bill has encouraged domestic US manufacturing, he continues. “We’ve closed two policies that cover US manufacturing in Asia, not the US,” he adds.
Conversly, tariffs on imported products could lead domestic manufacturers to look — and find — other markets there and we have to see how the quality plays out over time,” he says, because pricing will be much higher.
Asia remains the centre of renewable energy technology — China and India are the two biggest significantly for solar and battery storage — while Europe investment in products has “picked up significantly”.
Ariel Green has been “active” in 30 countries and provided coverage in 15 of them. Given the long-term nature of TPI coverage, no company can predict government policy changes, Napiorkowski stresses.
He explains: “For example, we’ve been supporting the South Korean fuel cell market for a good eight years, but investments decreased in Q4 last year following 18 months of political instability there. This is slowly turning around and funding these projects.”
On the global stage, however, the link between insurance and renewable energy is growing stronger. The UN climate talks in Azerbaijan 2024 — COP29 — was a “breakthrough” COP for re/insurers, Napiorkowski says, and COP30 in Brazil last year proved that insurance is moving “systematically upstream” into the investment process.
He concludes: “Many financial institutions are getting into renewable energy projects, but most of them still don’t know the existence of TPI, and so we need to create more awareness that bankability and insurability go hand in hand, which together will help drive further investment into clean energy.”
