They say what you don’t know won’t hurt you… in terms of opportunities, though, ignorance means you could be missing out. CLS Risk Solutions, which has launched a new proposition, believes there’s an area of insurance that brokers need to be aware of.
The property and renewables development risk solutions provider is offering permit challenge insurance to renewable energy infrastructure projects to enable financing even amid judicial review challenges to the planning permission.
“It ensures the solvency of the developer during third-party challenges and, in the event of an unfavourable final court order, it covers the capital investment into the project and financing repayment obligations,” explained CLS Risk Solutions, whose policy provides comprehensive protection against construction project interruptions.
Commenting on the rollout, business development director Will Brooks of CLS Risk Solutions Europe said: “As well as creating better investments, the threat of a challenge to a permit is enough for private investors and banks to stop funding; without insurance there is no certainty that the business plan will perform. In the worst case scenario, they lose all their money. They won’t take that risk.
“In the simplest terms, without permit challenge insurance, developers will find it difficult to get the funding they need to build wind farms. It is clear from our existing strong local broker partnerships in Europe that the insurance industry has a significant opportunity to support the renewable energy sector by providing certainty that has been missing until now.”
According to the firm, in 2018 alone there were more than a thousand wind farms built in Europe. And CLS Risk Solutions believes permit challenge insurance will help developers and investors access additional opportunities by making difficult investments easier.
“We are undoubtedly the leaders in the market for complex property risk solutions, including the growing area of renewable energy construction,” asserted Brooks. “But it’s an area of insurance that is little known and even less understood in the wider broker market – it has been a sleeping giant in many respects.
“The growth potential is huge, but there is a lot of work to be done to raise awareness among brokers and their clients of these products and what they are capable of.”
