NARDAC, a specialist energy and infrastructure broker and Managing General Agency (MGA), has announced that it is now able offer increased natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) limits to owners of ground-mounted or rooftop C&I solar projects through its digital broking and underwriting platform, Community Solar. Alongside the increase in Nat Cat coverage, NARDAC is also extending its underwriting facility to projects of a lower total insured value of $100,000. This will help support smaller firms with more limited roof space in investing in decarbonizing their electricity.
The C&I solar market has grown year over year, notably in the U.S. where installations that supply the grid are backed by federal incentives. But as storms have increased in intensity and severity across the Southern and Eastern U.S., solar projects have borne the brunt of the damage, and some installations have seen a total insurance loss. This has led to an overall retrenching of insurance capacity, and increased pricing for premiums available in the market.
In order to address a market need for additional Nat Cat coverage and more competitive premiums, NARDAC has increased its Nat Cat cover to a maximum of $5 million per project. This will enable the largest portfolio owners to secure protection for their assets without fear of breaching sub-limits and loan agreements
“Prior to launching Community Solar last year, we’d identified the C&I solar sector as a key market under served by existing solutions,” said Hannah Webb, partner at NARDAC. “Given a well-established technology, with no single point failures and largely geographically disaggregated portfolios, we felt there was an opportunity to expedite and bring efficiency to C&I insurance with a new digital mechanism.“
“Now, with substantial growth in broking through our digital platform, we’re looking to increase our support for this important market by expanding the scope of our coverage and services,” she continued. “Prior to updating our offering, we sought the opinion of our retail broker partners and our insureds to understand what this important sector needs to continue to expand. We’re confident, therefore, that our augmented offering will meet the evolving demands of the market in distribution, location and scale.”
News item from NARDAC