WORLD FORUM OFFSHORE WIND (WFO) published its first White Paper Insurability of Floating Offshore Wind. The report is the result of one year’s worth of monthly discussions between participating WFO members during meetings of WFO’s Floating Offshore Wind Committee on the topic of floating offshore wind insurability.
For the acceleration of the new technology deployment, investment is a prerequisite. It is therefore necessary to gain trust of investors and financiers to enable the projects to move from a demonstrator to a commercial scale. Insurance is the security on which both Investors and Lenders rely when making their investment decision and which makes investments possible.
Major differences have been identified in the risk perception of moorings, dynamic cables and repair and maintenance concepts. To achieve sufficient and long-term insurance coverage, the Insurance Subcommittee recommends that projects follow an approach that will mitigate the losses below the property damage and business interruption deductible. This could be achieved either by (n-1) redundancy concepts or by a proactive spare parts strategy (in particular for cables and moorings) combined with sufficient defects liability provisions in the supply and Installation contracts.
Turbines, including different floating platform concepts, have on the other hand not been perceived as a major obstacle to achieving an enhanced level of insurability. It was nevertheless considered of high importance to have the turbine and floating platform design integrity independently reviewed and evaluated.
“This Whiter Paper is the result of numerous fruitful in-depth discussions between leading experts from the floating offshore wind and insurance industry who come together during monthly Insurance Subcommittee meetings of WFO’s Floating Offshore Wind Committee”, said Ralf Skowronnek, Chairman Insurance Subcommittee, Skowronnek & Bechnak International Risk and Insurance Advisors.
“We are convinced this White Paper will accelerate the global growth of floating offshore wind by providing concrete recommendations on how to improve the insurability for floating offshore wind projects. We thank all our WFO members for their excellent input!”, said Gunnar Herzig, Managing Director, WFO.
The full White Paper can be accessed on the WFO website under: www.wfo-global.org
WFO is the world’s only organisation 100% dedicated to fostering the global growth of offshore wind energy. WFO’s international members represent the complete offshore wind value chain including developers, manufacturers, service firms and other organisations. WFO is registered as a non-profit association (e.V.) in Germany with offices in Hamburg, Taipei, and New York. WFO’s unique profile facilitates access to governmental and international forums in order to open new markets and to advocate for global offshore wind growth
Source: WFO
