Turning Garbage to Jet Fuel
Insurance solution provides performance coverage for the output of Fulcrum’s garbage-to-fuels plant
New Energy Risk Designs Innovative Performance Insurance Program for Fulcrum BioEnergy, as Company Raises $150M for Landmark Waste-to-Fuel Project
Menlo Park, Calif., Dec. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — New Energy Risk, a provider of customized insurance technology solutions for renewable energy projects, has provided Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc., a company that turns municipal solid waste (MSW) into renewable transportation fuels, with a technology performance insurance solution for Fulcrum’s Sierra BioFuels Plant. The project, currently under construction outside of Reno, Nevada will have the capacity to process 175,000 tons of municipal solid waste into more than 10 million gallons of low-carbon synthetic crude oil on an annual basis, beginning in early 2020. The synthetic crude oil is then processed into transportation fuels. By turning municipal waste into fuel, Fulcrum is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 percent, and providing a cleaner fuel alternative for airlines, the military, and other customers.
Fulcrum recently raised $150 million in bond financing for the Sierra BioFuels project, and turned to New Energy Risk, an affiliate of global insurance giant XL Catlin, to provide a performance insurance product to support the financing. The insurance complemented Fulcrum’s patented technology, industry-leading development team and process, as well as feedstock and off-take strategies, in order to increase project attractiveness to investors. Fulcrum’s existing investors include US Renewables Group, Rustic Canyon Partners, United Airlines, Waste Management, BP, and Cathay Pacific.
New Energy Risk is a specialty insurance technology company that acts as an effective bridge between new technology innovators, insurers and lenders. The company used a proprietary techno-economic model that synthesizes scientific understanding, engineering analysis, as well as actuarial and financial expertise to assess the performance of Fulcrum’s technology and potential output of the Sierra BioFuels Plant. After its extensive assessment of the MSW-to-fuels technology and process, New Energy Risk developed a custom solution, backed and provided by XL Catlin, to insure the performance of Fulcrum’s plant. The insurance program provides a significant technology risk mitigant for Sierra BioFuels Plant bondholders who have invested in this revolutionary project.
“The New Energy Risk technology performance insurance solution further strengthened our business model for the Sierra BioFuels Plant, and was an important factor in financing this project,” said Eric Pryor, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fulcrum BioEnergy. “The New Energy Risk team worked closely with our engineering and technology teams to assess the technical aspects for our innovative project and were successful in creating an impactful and customized insurance product that provides significant risk mitigation for Fulcrum’s bondholders.”
“We’re proud to have supported Fulcrum in their capital raise and are excited to see their leading-edge technology and process grow in both scope and impact – taking a true waste product and converting it into millions of gallons of clean transportation fuels, and creating hundreds of jobs in the process,” said Tom Dickson, CEO of New Energy Risk. “Fulcrum is showing what is possible in the waste-to-fuel space, and doing it at unprecedented scale. We look forward to working with them on more projects in the years to come.”
About New Energy Risk
New Energy Risk is a provider of innovative data analytics and technology performance risk transfer solutions to the new and renewable energy industry worldwide, and pioneered the development of large scale technology performance insurance. It was founded in 2010 to provide complex risk assessment and serve as an effective bridge between clean-energy innovators and insurers, and is part of XL Innovate, an insurance technology venture firm. Since then, New Energy Risk has helped its customers gain over $1 billion in financing for renewable energy and new technology deployments. To learn more, please visit www.newenergyrisk.com.
About XL Catlin
XL Catlin is the global brand used by XL Group Ltd.’s (NYSE: XL) insurance and reinsurance companies which provide property, casualty, professional and specialty products to industrial, commercial and professional firms, insurance companies and other enterprises throughout the world. Clients look to XL Catlin for answers to their most complex risks and to help move their world forward. To learn more, visit xlcatlin.com.
About Fulcrum BioEnergy
Based in Pleasanton, California, Fulcrum is leading the development of a reliable and efficient process for transforming municipal solid waste – or household garbage – into transportation fuels, including jet fuel and diesel. The company’s plants will provide customers with low-cost, low-carbon drop-in fuel that is competitively priced with traditional petroleum fuel. Fulcrum, a privately held company, has aligned itself with strategic feedstock, technology and fuel offtake partners to further strengthen and accelerate the company’s innovative approach to commercially producing large volumes of renewable fuel from municipal solid waste. For more information, please visit www.fulcrum-bioenergy.com.
SOURCE XL Catlin
I Don’t Like Losses, Sport
We have news you can use today on the subject of the most powerful, inevitable, fearsome, mysterious, taboo, and untouchable four-letter word in the advanced bioeconomy lexicon.
Risk.
The problem of Investor risk is ridiculously easy to understand and ridiculously hard to solve. If you think back to your own 401(k) or IRA for a second, you’ll understand risk tolerance among financial investors in a jiffy.
Financial investors will tolerate very short-term cases of marginally sub-par returns and they have no tolerance at all of losses.
As Michael Douglas, in his Oscar-winning turn as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, elegantly explained it:
“I don’t like losses, sport. Nothing ruins my day more than losses. Now you do good, you get perks, lots and lots of perks.”
The poor distribution of technology risk is a market failure, especially corrosive in the bioeconomy because risk concentrates like a hurricane and blows down those least able to bear it, like a bully picking out a mark on the playground.
And risk induces panic and suffocation long before it induces death, which is one reason why the Valley of Death is so unimaginably painful to ventures and the people in them. Chilling early-stage venture investing far more effectively and absolutely than the absence of good deal flow.
What’s to protect the bondholders? The technology risk insurance program.
The remedy
Recently, Fulcrum BioEnergy raised $150 million in bond financing for its Sierra BioFuels project, which will convert up to 175,000 tons of municipal solid waste per year into more than 10 million gallons of low-carbon synthetic crude oil, beginning in early 2020. More on Fulcrum’s progress here — and our most recent Multi-Slide Guide is here.
Fulcrum’s existing investors include US Renewables Group, Rustic Canyon Partners, United Airlines, Waste Management, BP, and Cathay Pacific. Their strategic equity capital is at risk — as it should be.
“There’s a lot that’s special about the Fulcrum project,” New Energy Rick CEO Tom Dickson told The Digest. “They have Abengoa as an EPC, and despite what has happened to the corporate paren, Abengoa’s core US EPC unit is strong. They have offtake, great management, irreplaceable equity partners. But it’s not GE standing behind a technology with a performance agreement. There’s a perceived technology risk.
So, who’s measuring that risk in order to efficiently spread it. Turns out, not many.
“Each party has a focus on the risk they have a mandate to assume,” Dickson noted. “Lenders have a mandate to take credit risk, and some market risk. But they are not really into assuming technology risk. Because of that, when it comes to the technology process risk, they are not trying to understand that, and someone has to do that to get first commercials financed, and put capital behind that assessment.”
How’d that “first of kind” project get done? For one thing, Fulcrum brought in New Energy Risk, an affiliate of global insurance giant XL Catlin.
New Energy Risk is a specialty insurance technology company that acts as an effective bridge between new technology innovators, insurers and lenders. It was founded in 2010 to provide complex risk assessment and is part of XL Innovate, an insurance technology venture firm. It’s not a small potatoes thing. The firm has helped its customers gain over $1 billion in financing for renewable energy and new technology deployments.
In this case, New Energy Risk developed a custom solution, backed and provided by XL Catlin (the global brand used by XL Group Ltd’s insurance and reinsurance companies which provide property, casualty, professional and specialty products around the world).
What happened?
“We start with the engineering data,” explained NER’s Jon Cozens, “ and we end up with actuarial output. From the engineering data we are creating a model and looking at failure modes, and the impact on financing and the risk position. In the event of a failure, we ask, how long will it take to alleviate, is the capital there to handle it, and could the timelines impact loan covenants.
“We step in when there is underperformance,” Dickson added, “when the project has run out of alternative means — warranties, it’s own cash — and the failure is due to the technology. Not because of a hurricane, but because of the science; you turn it on, it doesn’t work or at a low percentage of nameplate and because of that , in default of a loan covenant. We alleviate that shortfall.”
Every financing is different
Sometimes the risk freak-out factor focuses on long-term performance, sometimes around start-up and commissioning.
To complicate matters, every project is so darn different. It’s not as simple as: here’s a wind turbine, here’s the standard power purchase agreement, here are the wind curves. The feedstocks are different, the molecules vary, the technologies are unique, the offtake agreements are one-offs, the lenders are not the same, some bonds are rated and others are not, the loan periods don’t line up, the covenants change with every deal.
Dickson explains, “it depends on the policy. if it is short term and responding to risk around completion and commissioning, for us we’re looking really at moving stuff through the pipes, and what are the failure modes, and how do you recover from those. Does it mean adding a unit or redesigning — and does the project have enough time to fix it?”
“In a 10 year policy where we are looking at failure at any time during amortization when it falls below X. By then, the pipes have been figured out, and it is about long-term science, and becomes more about reliability than the expected efficiency. Also, we do work, actively with the USDA loan guarantee program. 9003 loan guarantees require an EPC wrap, and while a lot of EPCs do will wrap completion and delay, it’s been tough relating to the technology itself. Some are successful, some get there some do not. We’ve been working in that area as well.”
So, it’s complex and time consuming.
“It can take 3–4 months for our work,” Dickson noted. “But we’re never the long pole in the tent when it comes to timelines.”
The best projects survive
“If we can structure around the risk,” Cozens told the Digest. “There are going to be fewer failures and more successes. But we want to help the strong projects and keep the projects not yet ready on the back burner. Even if we structured our way out of a loss [from a single project], we all need to grow the capital base, and that means not just doing projects for the sake of it and making money for ourselves, but identifying and supporting the best projects.”
And Fulcrum fits that mould. As Dickson eplained, “Fulcrum is showing what is possible in the waste-to-fuel space, and doing it at unprecedented scale. We look forward to working with them on more projects in the years to come.”
Best of breed, multiple projects. Terms that were in the “future milestones” part of a corporate slide desk, say, five years ago. Today, we’re seeing the survivors from a culled flock beginning the breakout from the Valley of Death.
As Cozens noted, “The winners in the market are survivors and for a reason,”
Originally published at www.biofuelsdigest.com on December 11, 2017.
Vionx Secures Insurance Product for Its Flow Batteries
Vionx Secures Insurance Product for Its Flow Batteries
The product adds a bigger balance sheet to the performance guarantee, potentially de-risking investments in vanadium redox flow batteries.
Flow battery maker Vionx took a step toward easier sales by releasing an insurance product for its technology.
The Massachusetts company teamed up with New Energy Risk to create a performance insurance policy that covers energy, power, round-trip efficiency and availability of the vanadium redox flow systems. This could open a new chapter in the bankability of insurgent battery technologies challenging lithium-ion’s dominance.
Flow battery makers argue that their long-duration systems can cycle for years without degradation, making them ultimately cheaper to own than lithium-ion batteries, which fade over time. The lifetime cost of ownership argument, though, requires the customer to believe the company’s claims about its new technology, even though it hasn’t been operating for more than a few years.
Having an outside entity vet the technology changes the dynamic of trust. Vionx asserts that this is the first insurance product for a utility-scale flow battery.
“It takes Vionx from, ‘We can compete on price; trust us,’ to ‘We can compete on price, but you don’t have to trust us, because it’s guaranteed by an insurance company,'” said Daniel Finn-Foley, an energy storage analyst at GTM Research.
Besides confidence in the technology, the end customer needs to feel secure that if something does go wrong, someone’s on the hook to fix it.
Performance guarantees have become standard for long-term lithium-ion storage contracts with major utilities, Finn-Foley noted. Recent utility-scale projects in California included 20-year performance warranties, which means the developer will absorb the cost of replacing batteries and inverters as they give out.
That’s a credible commitment from a company like AES, which has been building storage systems for a decade and has a market cap of $7.3 billion.
It’s a lot harder to convince customers when a company has only been around for a few years and has delivered just a few small pilot-scale projects. The insurance offering shifts the ultimate burden of accountability from Vionx to New Energy Risk, an affiliate of global insurance company XL Catlin.
The customer for the policy would be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor that purchases Vionx batteries as part of an energy storage project. If any issues arise with a deployed system, Vionx still has the affirmative obligation to repair or replace according to warranty. The insurance covers the scenario in which there’s a performance shortfall and Vionx can’t fulfill the warranty.
“Vionx is a small company, but you have this financial support if anything does go wrong,” said Alan Dash, a member of the Vionx board.
Phrased differently, this means that New Energy Risk (NER) has sufficient confidence in Vionx’s flow systems to put its name and money behind them.
Under the arrangement, NER is offering an initial tranche of $50 million of coverage for Vionx’s current pipeline.
“We are prepared to provide additional capacity as Vionx grows and customer adoption increases in the marketplace,” said NER CEO Tom Dickson.
The insurer’s confidence stems from a nearly 20-month vetting process. The NER analysts took a deeply technical approach, crunching through raw performance data from field units and accelerated lifetime testing, said Chief Commercial Officer Jon Cozens.
The company specializes in seeking out promising emerging energy technologies from companies with limited balance sheets, and offering them creditworthy support, Cozens said.
“In the energy finance construct, a lot of times lenders require balance-sheet support to finance the deal,” Cozens said. “Our business is fundamentally around enabling project finance.”
This boost comes at a pivotal time for Vionx, which is looking to expand from its first few demos to broader commercial production.
The company has two systems operating today in Massachusetts: a 160-kilowatt, 4-hour system at an Army Reserve base at Fort Devens, and a 500-kilowatt, 6-hour system at Holy Name High School in Worcester. Vionx has built partnerships with other veteran companies to help move the product, including UTC, Siemens and 3M.
I was able to track down one other flow battery insurance product. ViZn Energy has developed an insurance product that it is actively sharing with specific customers in three-way meetings with insurance providers, VP of Marketing Mike Grunow confirmed in an email.
In fairness to Vionx, ViZn has not broadcast this information, and insurance has not been needed on its announced bookings so far. The trophy for first flow battery insurance sold, then, remains up for grabs.
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Read the article on GreenTechMedia
$500M in Renewable Energy Projects
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.
XL Innovate Acquires New Energy Risk
DUBLIN, IRELAND – September 21, 2015 - XL Group plc (“XL” or the “Company”) (NYSE: XL) announced today that XL Innovate, the venture capital initiative sponsored by the Company, has acquired all of the shares of New Energy Risk, Inc..
Tom Hutton, Managing Partner of XL Innovate, said: “New Energy Risk has developed and delivered to the market unique performance warranty products which enable clean technology companies to obtain the project financing they need in order to grow. We look forward to the continued expansion of New Energy Risk under the leadership of CEO Tom Dickson who has a respected track record of leading companies that respond to market opportunities with creative solutions grounded in high quality analytics, underwriting and risk assessment. New Energy Risk is a great example of the kinds of businesses XL Innovate looks to grow. It develops and applies innovative insurance solutions based on engineering analytics, addressing new risks and underserved markets, and providing particularly high impact value for its clients.”
Mr. Dickson has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry, including executive and underwriting leadership positions. He founded and ran Meetinghouse LLC, a private firm specializing in investment management for insurance, reinsurance and structured credit markets. Mr. Dickson previously served as CEO and Chief Underwriting Officer of the Centre Group,an innovative international insurance and reinsurance group.
Commenting on his new role, Mr. Dickson said: “I’m excited to be back in an underwriting role, and particularly excited by the opportunity to address such high value client relationships throughout the world. At New Energy Risk, we collaborate closely with customers, brokers, financiers and other intermediaries in developing customized policies to encourage customer acceptance and support financing of renewable and clean energy technologies.” In 2013, New Energy Risk launched an innovative technology performance insurance product for the cleantech industry, which has been used by companies like Bloom Energy, a Silicon Valley based fuel cell company. Over the past three years, New Energy Risk has worked with XL and Munich Re to insure the performance of Bloom Energy’s technology, improving the financing in support of the installation of nearly 65 megawatts of clean, reliable electricity.
About XL Innovate
XL Innovate is an XL sponsored venture capital initiative focused on making investments in companies with businesses that address the world’s most complex risk and ensuring the relevancy of the insurance industry today and into the future. XL Innovate will seek to invest in companies that strive to create opportunities outside of the traditional underwriting space by finding ways to underwrite currently uninsured risks. To learn more, visit www.xlinnovate.com
About New Energy Risk
New Energy Risk is a provider of innovative data analytics, strategic consulting and financial risk transfer solutions to the renewable energy industry worldwide. It was founded by Tom Hutton in 2011 to serve as a risk assessor and intermediary between clean-energy innovators and insurers. For more information, visit www.newenergyrisk.com.
About Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy is a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology generating clean, highly-efficient on-site power from multiple fuel sources. The company was founded in 2001 with a mission to make clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world. Bloom Energy Servers are currently producing power for several Fortune 500 companies including Google, Walmart, AT&T, eBay, Staples, The Coca-Cola Company, as well as notable non-profit organizations such as Caltech and Kaiser Permanente. For more information, visit www.bloomenergy.com.
About XL Group plc
XL Group plc (NYSE:XL), through its subsidiaries and under the XL Catlin brand, is a global insurance and reinsurance company providing property, casualty and specialty products to industrial, commercial and professional firms, insurance companies and other enterprises throughout the world. Clients look to XL Catlin for answers to their most complex risks and to help move their world forward. To learn more, visit www.xlcatlin.com.
XL, Munich RE, NER Partner for Clean Tech
MUNICH, GERMANY - XL Group's Complex Accounts unit, Munich Re's Green Tech Solutions team, and consultants New Energy Risk (NER), have teamed up to deliver an innovative performance insurance policy for a portfolio of fuel cell servers installed across the U.S.
The insurance cover provides critical support for the project financing by insuring the fuel cells’ performance over 15 years, should the manufacturer be unable to meet its warranty obligations. The USD 99 million bond issued to help finance the portfolio of servers was granted investment grade rating, which resulted in notable financing efficiencies. Arthur J. Gallagher was the broker for the transaction.
Mike McGavick, XL Group’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Helping move new ventures forward is exactly what insurers need to do in today’s market. Our clients need strong innovative partners to help manage their risk and I am delighted that we worked together with Munich Re and New Energy Risk to deliver this unique product.”
“This shows clearly the importance of insurance in making the project significantly more attractive to investors. In analysing and assessing the risks and giving a long term insurance cover we signal a certain level of security for all stakeholders,” explained Thomas Blunck, the Munich Re Board member with oversight for this segment.
XL Group launched this innovative performance insurance cover in 2013 along with specialized consultants New Energy Risk. The fuel cell technology covered in this deal will enable a grid-independent energy supply for several companies.
It is the first time that an insurance coverage, provided by XL Group and Munich Re, has contributed to a financing bond receiving investment grade rating, thereby becoming more attractive to a wider range of investors.
“Each of these companies brought valuable expertise that, combined, led to a unique insurance solution for a new technology. This collaborative approach could pave the way for further business in this and other energy-related fields,” said Tom Hutton, CEO of New Energy Risk.
XL Group’s Complex Accounts team serves both national and international companies across different industries that are looking for cover from economic and operational risks which could have an unexpected negative impact that they’re not able or willing to bear alone. These may include risks to specific innovation-related projects, a business’ value chain, or its annual revenue or profitability. Starting where other insurers traditionally set their limits, the team creates unconventional coverage for truly unique business risks. At present their geographic focus is primarily in Europe; in the United States they work exclusively in partnership with New Energy Risk and policies are provided by XL Group’s Indian Harbor Insurance Company.
Munich Re's Green Tech Solutions team has a long and successful track record in providing unique and tailor-made solutions to enable business in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency. With a global team, industry recognized expertise, and substantial capacity to cover large investment projects, Green Tech Solutions is a proven partner for complex risk scenarios in new technology investments.
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About XL Group plc’s Insurance Operations XL Group plc’s insurance companies offer property, casualty, professional and specialty insurance products globally. Businesses that are moving the world forward choose XL as their partner. To learn more, visit xlgroup.com/insurance
About XL Group plc XL Group plc (NYSE: XL), through its subsidiaries, is a global insurance and reinsurance company providing property, casualty and specialty products to industrial, commercial and professional firms, insurance companies and other enterprises throughout the world. XL is the company clients look to for answers to their most complex risks and to help move their world forward. To learn more, visit xlgroup.com
XL Group is the global brand used by XL Group plc’s insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries.
About Munich Re Munich Re stands for exceptional solution-based expertise, consistent risk management, financial stability and client proximity. In the financial year 2013, the Munich Re Group achieved a profit of €3.3bn on premium income of €51.5bn. It operates in all lines of insurance, with almost 45,000 employees throughout the world. For further information, visit munichre.com
About New Energy Risk New Energy Risk provides innovative data analytics, strategic consulting, and financial risk transfer solutions to the renewable energy industry, worldwide. New Energy Risk is a privately held firm based in Menlo Park, CA and Fairfield, CT. In the United States, XL Group’s Complex Accounts insurance team works exclusively with New Energy Risk. For more information, visit newenergyrisk.com
About Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc., a division of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), is a global risk management and insurance services provider headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. It has operations in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda, and offers client-service capabilities in more than 140 countries through its own expert advisors and a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services’ advisors specialize by industry and coverage types—developing solutions uniquely tailored to individual client requirements. www.ajg.com
Bloom Energy Performance Product
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - XL Group’s Complex Accounts team is pleased to announce that it has provided an innovative new Performance Warranty insurance product to Bloom Energy of Sunnyvale, California. The new cover XL Group developed has enabled Bloom Energy to finance the installation of dozens of Bloom Energy Servers, totaling 6.1MW in capacity.
These systems are expected to generate over 50 million kilowatt hours of clean, reliable electricity. The XL Group insurance policy assures the performance of Bloom’s fuel cell server technology over the term of the financing.
Joachim Walch, Head of XL Group’s Complex Accounts unit said: “Companies seeking to implement innovative projects, often in newer industries, find they cannot get the insurance cover they need. But moving forward means risk and our role as insurers is to find innovative answers to new challenges.
“Our Complex Accounts team is dedicated to work closely with the different parties involved in a project, to be able to develop risk transfer solutions that cannot be found elsewhere in the market. By having our experts on both sides of the Atlantic work together with Bloom Energy and their consultants we were able to create a bespoke insurance product that helped move this important project forward.”
The insurance solution was developed together with consultants New Energy Risk and with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. acting as broker. According to advisors representing the lender, Silicon Valley Bank, the XL Group solution is “the first insurance warranty product we have seen, that actually makes a difference to the lender.”
The transaction involves the use of an innovative financing approach developed by Bloom and its finance and insurance partners, whereby the energy off-taker entered into a long term agreement to purchase the electricity (a PPA), and the generation of the electricity is backed by a Bloom Product Performance Warranty, which is in turn fully insured by XL Group. Financing is being provided by Silicon Valley Bank. This high-value approach has enabled uniquely efficient and cost effective financing. The policy is provided by XL Group insurance company Indian Harbor Insurance Company.
XL Group’s Complex Accounts team partners with both national and international companies that are looking for cover from economic risks which could potentially have an unexpected negative impact that they’re not able or willing to bear alone. These may include risks to specific innovation-related projects, a business’ value chain, or its annual revenue or profitability. Starting where other insurers traditionally set their limits, the team creates unconventional coverage for truly unique operational business risks. At present their geographic focus is primarily in Europe; in the United States they work exclusively in partnership with New Energy Risk.
About XL Group plc’s Insurance Operations
XL Group plc’s insurance companies offer property, casualty, professional and specialty insurance products globally. Businesses that are moving the world forward choose XL as their partner. To learn more, visit xlgroup.com/insurance
About XL Group plc
XL Group plc (NYSE: XL), through its subsidiaries, is a global insurance and reinsurance company providing property, casualty and specialty products to industrial, commercial and professional firms, insurance companies and other enterprises throughout the world. XL is the company clients look to for answers to their most complex risks and to help move their world forward. To learn more, visit www.xlgroup.com
XL Group is the global brand used by XL Group plc’s insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries.
About Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy is a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology generating clean, highly-efficient on-site power from multiple fuel sources. The company was founded in 2001 with a mission to make clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world. Bloom Energy Servers are currently producing power for several Fortune 500 companies including Google, Walmart, AT&T, eBay, Staples, The Coca-Cola Company, as well as notable non-profit organizations such as Caltech and Kaiser Permanente. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA. For more information, visit www.bloomenergy.com.
About New Energy Risk
New Energy Risk provides innovative data analytics, strategic consulting, and financial risk transfer solutions to the renewable energy industry, worldwide. New Energy Risk is a privately held firm based in Menlo Park, CA and Fairfield, CT. For more information, visit www.newenergyrisk.com.
About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, has operations in 20 countries and offers client-service capabilities in more than 140 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants, visit www.ajg.com.