Page 21 - Insurance Times June 2019

from property damage caused during construction of
the project. Cover starts while solar panel are in transit
to the job site and ends once the job is completed or
the owner accepts the work.
Employers Liability: Provides cover against the risk of
accident from usual workplace risks such as working at
height and manual handling.

Marine Cover: Covers include Marine Transit for any
loss of goods and Marine Delay in Start-up to protect
from any consequential loss in revenue.
Environmental Risk Insurance: Environmental damage
and insurance companies, in general, provide cover to solar coverage indemnifies solar system owners of the risk
power plant and rooftops under normal property insurance
of either environmental damage done by their
policies such as fire policy, machinery breakdown, business development or pre-existing damage on the
interruption, property damage, public liability etc. which development site.
might be insufficient to cover all kinds of losses faced by
the solar companies.
Apart from the above conventional policies that
are available in the market, there are two
Different Types of Insurances covering
policies which are Solar Specific in nature, for
the risks faced by Solar Energy firms:
example
Even though solar insurance products might not be
HDFC Ergo Launched the First Solar Energy Shortfall
standardized yet, demand for solar PV insurance is
Insurance Policy in India in the month of December 2017.
increasing. In general, large PV systems require liability and
property insurance and many developers may opt to add
This Solar Energy Shortfall policy gives solar project
policies such as environmental risk insurance.
developers the ability to insure certain causes of solar power
General Liability Insurance: General liability insurance
generation loss.
covers policyholders for death or injury to persons or
damage to property owned by third parties. General
The newly available policy will provide a missing part of the
liability coverage is important for solar system installers,
puzzle by enabling developers to mitigate some of the risks
as risk is greatest during installation.
associated with solar development and operation, and
Machinery Breakdown: Electrical and or machinery providing them greater predictability in their investments.
breakdown of any machinery or other equipment
resulting in costly repairs or even replacement of the According to the company, this policy is designed to counter
solar panel. non-physical damage related risks that solar projects
regularly face. This policy can cover anything from utility-
Business Interruption: Cover for period of operational
scale farms and green fields across India, to portfolios of
downtime i.e., covering the cash flow of the solar
rooftop installations for commercial and residential builds.
business as a result of an insured peril, for example, fire
or storm damage, machinery breakdown or equipment
The causes of generation shortfall recognized under this
failure.
insurance policy include unintentional errors in the
Property Damage: The solar system owner usually
calculation of target production, defects in the insured
purchases property insurance to protect against risks
energy installations, and cases where actual solar radiation
not covered by the warranty or to extend the coverage
falls short of estimates. To claim insurance money, the
period. The insurance covers material damage due to
energy shortfall must arise solely from one or more of these
external causes such as fire, theft, vandalism, sabotage,
causes.
hail damage, snow load, lightning strike, overload,
operational mistakes, clumsiness, negligence and theft.
This policy would pay for the energy shortfall during an
Contract Works: Protection against any loss arising energy shortfall policy year, provided that it is reported to
The Insurance Times, June 2019 21