# Built to last: Why insurers are helping design resilience into renewable energy and storage facilities

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131/built-to-last-why-insurers-are-helping-design-resilience-into-renewable-energy-and-storage-facilities
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131/built-to-last-why-insurers-are-helping-design-resilience-into-renewable-energy-and-storage-facilities.md
Podcast: [Energy Gang](https://stenobird.com/podcast/energy-gang-887131)
Published: 2026-08-25T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/rss.art19.com/episodes/addd1e0c-b855-452f-bcf3-f41240b83837.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/rss.art19.com/episodes/addd1e0c-b855-452f-bcf3-f41240b83837.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 2653

## Resource

As the renewable energy and storage industries grow, and enter more hostile geographies, asset resilience is becoming an increasingly pressing concern. Developers, owners and lenders want to know how solar, storage and other facilities can increase their resilience to the growing risks of physical threats such as hailstorms and wildfires. The rush to add capacity to meet surging demand from new data centres is adding to the pressure, making calculations about the value of asset reliability increasingly complex. In this special episode, host Ed Crooks speaks with Mike Perron, Renewable Energy Market Lead at FM, and Cassian Walker, Operations Vice President and Renewables Engineering Manager at FM, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers. They explain how insurers are starting to build resilience into renewable project design far earlier in the development process, and why that has become a financing issue as much as a technical one. For solar power, that means understanding the inherent physical risks such as hail, then deciding what combination of tracker systems, stowing technology and panels is right for the location. The same equipment that performs adequately in California or New Jersey can become a major liability in Texas or Arizona. Cassian explains how modern trackers can tilt panels away from an incoming storm to turn a direct hit into a glancing blow. Mike contrasts a devastating nine-figure loss at one Texas site with a far smaller loss at another facility that successfully stowed. Those resilience strategies can work only if the system is designed for the local wind and hail conditions, and the performance of the equipment has been tested and verified. From there, the conversation broadens to the economics. Insurance can account for a large…

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