Our team of professionals meets the specific needs of the solar industry

Delyan Iliev managing director of Renewable Energy Insurance Broker

Delyan Iliev is the managing director of Renewable Energy Insurance Broker. The company is specialized in offering insurance products for solar power plants. Through its offices in New York, Berlin and Sofia they provide services worldwide.

Would you like to briefly present Renewable Energy Insurance Broker to the readers of magazine Energy?

We are an international insurance broker licensed in Bulgaria. With the opportunity to work throughout the European Union under the directive on the freedom of services.

In the USA our company has been providing services since 2017. And through our office in New York we manage to provide insurance coverage to our clients globally.

For the last four years we have been active members of Solar Power Europe – the association which is the driving force of the photovoltaic in Europe.

In Bulgaria we hold around 15%-20% share from all solar installations. The other country in which we hold a great presence with about 15% share is Romania. Including the largest photovoltaic park in the country – 56MWp. The solar power plants that we insure are located in Europe, Asia and Northern America. In the nearest future we expect to have customers on a fourth continent. 

Would it be interesting to learn about the products you offer in the field of energy?And in particular the field of the renewable energy?

In addition to the traditional insurances – All Risks and Business Interruption, as a specialized insurance broker in the renewable industry REIB also offers some specific coverages. One of them is the risk “Loss of income” instead of “Loss of profit” like most of the carriers provide. The difference is in the calculation of the compensation in cases of Business Interruption, where our clients/investors would receive higher indemnification. The other specific risk we offer is “Reduced Yield Cover” or Under performance guarantee; i.e. an insurer with a minimum “A-“ credit rating guarantees the amount of produced energy. An extremely important tool for banks, financial institutions and investment funds.

What are the most common damages to your clients? And is there an interesting example that you would share with our readers?

Based on our over ten years of experience in the solar insurance industry, I could say that the most common insurance events are due to thunderstorms and short circuits. In this way we have damages mainly to inverters and solar modules with business interruption of about 3-4 weeks.

Two years ago we had a case where a short circuit caused a fire on a central inverter. The foreign insurer we work with paid an advance compensation in the amount of over 100.000,00 EUR in the first week from the day of the claim. This was done in order the inverter manufacturer to start working on the new equipment as soon as possible; to reduce the loss of income as much as possible. In fact, the sooner the new inverter is produced, the less compensation for the “loss of income” will be paid by the insurance company. This is claims handling, which is rare in Bulgaria. And that is exactly the difference between local insurers and those whom REIB works with. The paid compensation in this particular case was several hundred thousand euros. 

How REIB experience in other countries can be useful in our country?

Based on our experience with foreign insurers, we manage to negotiate similar insurance programs for our clients in Bulgaria and CEE. In this way, the investors save time and money when they have to add to their portfolio new projects. We improve the conditions under which our customer’s solar power plants are insured by making them more bankable. 

In conclusion, how do you observe the future of the solar industry sector in Bulgaria and what could the clients expect from Renewable Energy Insurance Broker?

In the last two years we have seen a quite high interest in the solar industry in our country. There are a lot of operational small photovoltaic power plants up to 30kWp; which are benefited by the law FiT. For these installations we have a comprehensive insurance package with an annual premium of 150 euros. Our advantages over the rest of the market are following: loss of income coverage; quick and easy administration of the insurance policy, easy claims handling.

Also for the last several months in Bulgaria we have seen mainly rooftop solar power plants for self-consumption, so the insured is both producer and consumer/buyer.

The third type of photovoltaic parks that will be built in the next few years are those whose electricity will be sold on the free market or to a specific buyer; through Corporate PPA (corporate power purchase agreement). Exactly these solar power plants are our target for the best seller product “Reduced Yield Cover”. As I mentioned above, an insurance company with a minimum “A-” credit rating will guarantee the performance of the installation. Years ago we helped to one of our Italian investors to close a deal with a local bank for acquiring of operational solar power plant. And now we assume that “Underperformance cover” will be one of the main bank requirements in order to finance solar projects of this kind.

I believe that thanks to the team of specialists we have Renewable Energy Insurance Broker will be able to maintain high professionalism and meet the specific needs of our partners in the solar industry.

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