Insurtech company hires Chief Science Officer to deepen scientific expertise of emerging energy-related technologies

MENLO PARK CALIF – “Today, New Energy Risk, a global pioneer in creating insurance policies for renewable, high-efficiency energy developers and new technology producers, announced that its customers have secured a total of $500M in financing to support such energy projects.

Since its founding, New Energy Risk has underwritten production insurance for over $250 million in financing for fuel cell and waste-to-energy projects, including a 65MW Bloom Energy deployment. An additional $250 million is set to deploy this year, ranging from biomass to solar to energy storage. Using its modeling technology, New Energy Risk is fundamentally improving the economics behind alternative energy deployments, making them more cost competitive and providing certainty of output for customers, owners, and financiers.

Transitioning a new technology from science (proving the fundamentals) to engineering (implementing it in the field) can be expensive, time consuming, and complicated. This transition comes with high technical risk, and such risks have made it difficult for renewable energy projects to gain access to favorable financing terms. However, an insurance policy that guarantees output would significantly reduce the risk for buyers and funders, who otherwise want to adopt and support sustainable practices. Such policies did not exist, until now.

New Energy Risk offers customized insurance solutions for large-scale energy projects by accurately quantifying the risks and uncertainty associated with renewable energy projects for the very first time. This allows insurers to underwrite such projects, unlocking lower interest rates and energy costs over the long term. New Energy Risk’s unique offering lies in its algorithmic approach: a techno-economic risk model that combines analytics around scientific validity, engineering feasibility, project financials, and actuarial science.

New Energy Risk is led by experts in actuarial science, energy technologies, engineering, and financial modeling. In order to continue deepening its scientific understanding of new renewable energy technologies, the company has added Dr. Brentan Alexander, an expert in waste-to-energy processes, thermochemistry, and electrochemistry, as the firm’s Chief Science Officer. Dr. Alexander is a graduate of MIT and Stanford, serial entrepreneur, and leading researcher in the field of the clean conversion of carbon-based fuels. New Energy Risk has also promoted Jon Cozens, its Managing Director, to Chief Commercial Officer, to add focus on the company’s business development, partnerships, and transaction execution.

“We are thrilled to be working with incredible partners such as XL Catlin and a panel of leading global reinsurers, as well as cutting-edge renewable energy companies from around the world. Together, we have promoted over $500 million worth of large-scale energy deployments and we are experiencing unprecedented interest from customers seeking to deploy new forms of clean energy. In response, we have grown our team, both in size and expertise, with the addition of Dr. Alexander as Chief Science Officer and the expansion of Jon Cozens’ role as Chief Commercial Officer,” said Tom Dickson, CEO of New Energy Risk.

“New Energy Risk is the only dedicated, reliable source of performance analysis and underwriting for renewable energy and industrial biomass projects,” said John May, Managing Director at leading investment firm, Stern Brothers & Co., and Co-Head of the its Cleantech Energy and Infrastructure Group. “Their expertise and capacity for performance insurance is a key ingredient in successfully financing large deployments around the world. We look forward to continue working with them to accelerate the adoption of these new energy technologies.”

About New Energy Risk

New Energy Risk is a provider of innovative data analytics and financial risk transfer solutions to the renewable energy industry worldwide. It was founded in 2011 to serve as a risk assessor and intermediary between clean-energy innovators and insurers.