Ariel Re rebrands clean energy division

Bermuda-based re/insurer Ariel Re has rebranded its Clean Energy division as Ariel Green as it moves to increase awareness of technology performance insurance.

Ariel Re said it has insured $30 billion worth of assets on six continents over the last seven years, including more than 100 gigawatts of solar warranties.

Technology Performance Insurance policies protect against production shortfalls caused by technology failures, enabling manufacturers to issue long-term warranties and clean energy projects to secure funding, successfully start up, get built, and operate profitably.

This allows lower-cost capital providers to manage aggregation risk in commercialised technologies and participate in innovative projects without applying a risk premium.

“Especially in today’s high-interest market, we believe that performance insurance offers technology manufacturers and developers a powerful differentiator that can help them reassure investors, obtain financing on better terms, and increase speed to market,” said Jan Napiorkowski, Ariel Green’s managing director, who pioneered technology performance insurance in 2009.

“As the world strives to reach Net Zero, we’re responding to the increasing need to finance the trillions required to make the transition to clean energy,” Hong Kong-based Napiorkowski said. “And as more clean energy projects come online, legacy fossil fuel facilities can be shuttered, and their emissions abated.”

Over the past seven years, this ‘niche’ business has experienced strong growth, expanding with interest and investment in a wide range of renewables and clean energy projects, including solar, energy storage, biofuels, waste-to-energy, hydrogen, and fuel cells, among other technologies.

Ryan Mather, CEO of Ariel Re, said: “We offer to our capital providers a variety of uncorrelated, highly-tailored risk classes, and Ariel Green brings a very strong value proposition, both in terms of technical underwriting expertise and in improving their ESG footprint — our capital really likes that."

“Offering debt tenor matching, non-cancellable Lloyd’s policies shows that Ariel is a thoughtful, consistent, and predictable long-term partner for our brokers and clients. And Ariel Green’s process applies this to the insurance side of our business too,” Mather said.

“Our new brand will enable us to communicate more effectively to the wider clean energy markets,” Napiorkowski added. “Despite our success to date, we feel that we are only scratching the surface as many tech companies, project developers and investors remain unaware of Technology Performance Insurance, and how it can help them backstop warranties, secure financing for projects or enable mergers and acquisitions.”