Renewable energy is one of the most rapidly developing lines of insurance today, with robust growth continuing across the renewable energy sector.
Sam Walsh, head of US renewable energy at AXIS Insurance, recently chatted with IB TV about how the sector has developed over the past year.
You can watch the full interview here.
“2021 was a record-setting year for renewable energy capacity growth worldwide – and that was on top of a previous record year in 2020, where, even though it was a little bit of a blip from COVID, it proved to be a very resilient marketplace, and growth continued in an extensive way,” Walsh said. “And more than half of that growth over this past year was solar energy.”
The International Energy Association predicts that by 2026, global renewable energy capacity will be equivalent to current fossil fuel and nuclear capacity combined, Walsh said.
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“So there’s certainly a lot of robust growth expected over the near future,” he said. “But at the same time, when you have that sort of demand, there's a real impact on the industry as well – as well as external issues that are facing the global economy right now. Soaring shipping and transit costs, high commodity prices, as well as higher energy costs across the board are all factors that can act as threats to this rosy forecast for renewables over the near and medium term.”
For example, spot prices for polysilicon – a major component in solar panels – have skyrocketed to three or four times what they were a year ago, Walsh said.
“After years of competing for market share with very thin margins, you know, the uptick in component cost, the bottlenecks are really squeezing them,” he said.
Watch the full interview here.
