Solar and battery storage projects are becoming larger, more complex and more valuable. At the same time, the number of incidents is rising: fires, system failures and large claims are putting growing pressure on insurability across the renewable energy sector. The challenge this creates is fundamental. Renewable energy can only remain bankable and scalable if safety, quality and reliability are demonstrably controlled. Without structured risk management, the energy transition risks building an illusion of security rather than resilient infrastructure.
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The global energy transition has accelerated the deployment of utility-scale solar and battery storage worldwide. Supply chains have become increasingly international, technologies continue to evolve rapidly and power densities per site are rising, while projects are expected to operate reliably for decades. As installations grow larger and more interconnected, the consequences of failure grow with them. A single defect rarely remains isolated: problems can propagate through strings, racks, inverters or battery modules, and in many cases damage develops silently, becoming visible only once the financial and operational impact is already significant.
Insurability begins with risk control
Too often, the industry still approaches insurance as the primary solution to risk. In reality, insurability is the result of effective risk management, not the starting point. Risk management is about reducing uncertainty and demonstrating that systems operate safely under real-world conditions. It requires continuous verification of design quality, component integrity, installation standards and operational performance. Inspections therefore play a critical role: not as a compliance exercise but as a practical tool to identify, verify and control risks before they develop into losses.
Fire remains one of the most severe risks in solar and battery storage projects. The causes are generally well known: poor connector quality, incorrect DC cabling, installation errors, insufficient ventilation, thermal runaway in batteries and inadequate protection. What is striking is that fires rarely occur by coincidence. In most cases, they are the end result of a chain of insufficiently controlled risks, with failures in design, manufacturing quality, installation or maintenance forming the true root cause. Fire is rarely an isolated event: it is usually evidence of weaknesses already present within the asset.
Independent technical inspections are essential
Independent technical inspections have become increasingly important for investors, insurers and financiers. They go beyond assessing whether an installation functions: the question is whether it is fundamentally safe and whether critical risks have been properly mitigated. This covers system design, installation quality, component selection, electrical connections, protection measures and operational safety.
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A commissioning inspection is only a snapshot in time. Risks continue to evolve throughout the operational life of an installation, which is why risk management cannot stop once a project goes live. A positive inspection does not guarantee that no future damage will occur, but it does demonstrate that known risks were identified, assessed and mitigated according to current technical standards. That distinction is critical for long-term insurability.
Monitoring and drone inspections extend risk visibility
The scale of modern solar and battery storage projects increasingly calls for advanced inspection methods. Drone-based thermographic inspections allow operators to identify hotspots, defective modules, abnormal temperature patterns and early-stage degradation without interrupting operations, improving both safety and efficiency across large-scale assets.
Periodic monitoring allows operators to detect deviations before they escalate into major failures or fire incidents. Historical inspection data can also provide valuable evidence during insurance claims or technical disputes, extending the effectiveness of inspections over time.
Manufacturing quality remains an underestimated risk
One of the most underestimated risks in renewable energy projects is manufacturing quality. Solar modules and battery storage units are produced at enormous scale, and when defects occur they are rarely isolated to a single component — they often appear systematically across entire production batches.
If quality control only takes place after installation, projects are already exposed. Factory audits and batch inspections shift risk management earlier into the supply chain, where structural manufacturing issues can still be identified before deployment. For insurers and financiers, this has become increasingly important. Large serial defects can lead to catastrophic losses affecting entire portfolios rather than individual projects. Quality assurance is therefore not simply a technical exercise. It is a core element of financial risk reduction.
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The discussion around defect-related insurance coverage illustrates this clearly. Insurers have become more cautious, particularly for emerging technologies and battery storage. This is not because insurers are unwilling to support the energy transition, but because unmanaged risks are difficult to model and price. Projects that combine independent inspections, manufacturing quality control and continuous operational monitoring present a significantly stronger risk profile, improving both insurability and access to financing. Insurance follows risk control, not the other way around.
Where risk management lands
The renewable energy sector continues to grow rapidly, but scale without control creates vulnerability. Effective risk management requires an integrated approach: manufacturing quality assurance reduces hidden defects, independent technical inspections verify safety and integrity, and ongoing monitoring identifies operational deviations before they become losses.
Together, these measures build confidence for investors, insurers, financiers and asset owners. The energy transition cannot rely on assumptions: renewable energy infrastructure only becomes truly sustainable when risks are demonstrably controlled. Without structured risk management, solar and battery storage projects risk delivering not certainty but the illusion of it. (Harry Wolkenfelt/hcn)
