lnnSure Highlights Insurance Innovations That Will Advance The Energy Transition

Eight projects were granted a total of $5 million to support the development and deployment of novel insurance solutions that promote and increase the adoption of energy transition technologies

New York, NY (Jan. 14, 2025) — InnSure, a nonprofit innovation hub catalyzing novel insurance solutions that address climate change risk, is pleased to announce the winners of the $5 million Insurance Innovation Prize. The program, administered by InnSure and supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), offers awards for the development and deployment of novel insurance solutions that promote and increase the adoption of energy transition technologies.

Each winning project will promote the launch of solutions that fill insurance coverage gaps for the most emissive sectors: energy, buildings, and transportation, in New York and across the nation. The Prize winners are as follows:

• EcoStrat and New Energy Risk are partnering to provide feedstock supply insurance, which de-risks and stabilizes biomass feedstock supply chains, enabling the commercialization and financing of breakthrough technologies in the bioenergy markets.
• Energetic Capital is creating an embedded tax credit insurance policy to reduce transaction costs and enable more tax investment for small- and medium-sized projects.
• EVStar is bringing extended warranty policies for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to market, resulting in increased EV charging station availability.
• Exante is offering Exante Sunshine Guarantee, an embedded parametric insurance product that accelerates the adoption of rooftop solar by guaranteeing home and small business owners predicted solar irradiation levels.
• kWh Analytics is launching Distributed Generation Tax Credit Insurance, affordable coverage tailored for tax credit transfers, incentivizing the development of distributed generation solar and Battery Energy Storage Solutions (BESS) projects.
• Luminar Technologies is developing an embedded insurance product that incentivizes the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs) equipped with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology.
• Sunereum Labs is offering SunereumShield, an all-risk insurance product for solar assets in New York with Al-driven risk modeling, enabling faster claims processing and better pricing.
• Tallarna Inc. will develop a data-led performance insurance product that protects the economic outcomes of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and solar PV deployed across commercial real estate.

InnSure Executive Director Charlie Sidoti said, “Insurance is a powerful risk management tool with the unique ability to drive change, but new solutions are needed to leverage its capabilities in order to meet climate-related challenges. Each of the innovative projects selected as Prize winners has the potential to make an appreciable difference in addressing today’s coverage gaps, and we are proud to play a role in helping bring them to market.”

As part of the award, winners must have a path toward financial self-sufficiency and demonstrate a credible path to bringing an insurance product or policy to market in New York within 18 months of the grant start date. InnSure will offer winners support on activities such as raising risk capital, guidance for regulatory approvals in New York State, identifying key partners and consultation support, finding a business mentor, and connecting with other key resources.

NYSERDA Chief Program Officer Anthony Fiore said, “NYSERDA is proud to have launched the Insurance Innovation Prize in partnership with InnSure, and congratulates the winning companies for their vision to advance these novel insurance solutions. Insurability, like financeability, is a key hurdle to unlocking deployment of technologies from electric vehicles to solar to nuclear. Supporting the insurability of clean energy products and services not only enables their accelerated and scaled deployment, but can also de-risk and reduce their total costs. Working together, government, the private sector, and all innovation stakeholders can work to accelerate the adoption of clean transportation, building, and energy technologies that will benefit all New Yorkers and grow our economy.”

The Prize was announced early last year in May and had over 50 applications.

The Prize addresses the fact that most of the technologies required to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 are still in the early phases of commercialization and are therefore difficult to insure, and at least $10 trillion of insurance coverage is needed to reach net zero.

For more information on the Insurance Innovation Prize, please visit innsure.org/prize-page.

About InnSure

InnSure is a nonprofit innovation hub with a mission to catalyze novel insurance solutions to climate risk challenges. Through its initiatives, InnSure brings together innovators from inside and outside of the insurance industry to contribute to a systemic rethinking of how insurance is delivered, from product design and distribution, to underwriting practices and risk capital/capacity management. For more information, visit innsure.org.

Source: InnSure

Tags: awards, climate change, Innovation, InnSure, InsurTech, kWh Analytics, United States (USA)