The 2026 renewable energy insurance market begins in a markedly different place to previous years. The softening that took hold broadly across property and casualty, and parts of the renewables and infrastructure market in 2025 will continue, supported by strong reinsurance capital, modest new capacity, and insurers under pressure to meet growth targets. At the same time, consistent CAT losses, grid-related volatility, and more complex project designs are creating deep underwriting divergence between well-engineered portfolios and those with structural or geographic challenges.
As we look ahead to 2026, five themes appear poised to shape the year.
1. Softening in renewables continues – but with sharper divergence and CAT caution
Even with notable wildfire and SCS losses during 2025, the renewables and infrastructure insurance market remains on a soft trajectory into 2026, led by rate reductions in the broader property market, which Amwins note in 2025 commonly ranged from high single digits to 25%+ (depending on account specifics). This is reinforced by reinsurers’ stable or easing pricing and an increase in capital entering insurance markets for 2025-26.
Yet this is not a uniform story.
We expect 2026 to bring a stronger split between:
- Tier 1 renewable portfolios with strong engineering, complete data rooms, and diversified geography, which will continue to see rate reductions, expanded capacity and flexibility around deductibles and policy wording.
- CAT-exposed or under-maintained assets, especially in U.S. SCS belts, Mediterranean wildfire and flood zones, and Caribbean hurricane regions, which will face higher deductibles, reduced limits, and stricter modelling scrutiny.
2. BESS underwriting enters its next phase: controls, software, redundancy and data
2025 further confirmed that battery storage is now a data-driven class, not a materials-driven one. High-profile outages – including the Waratah transformer incident in Australia – shifted underwriter attention squarely to energy management system integrity, balance-of-plant redundancy, commissioning quality and how assets recover after a fault.
In 2026 we expect:
- Pressure on spacing and layout design due to location-constrained brownfield sites and new higher density designs.
- Closer scrutiny of EMS interoperability, system protocols and cyber risk.
- Design scrutiny around the balance of plant — transformers, inverters and cabling, reflecting 2025’s uplift in mid-severity losses.
- Further bifurcation between the top, bankable integrators, and the rest.
- Higher duration cell and units designs and resulting change in project design.
- If interest rates slide, a re-review of bankable insurance standards on the back of a potential wave of refinancing. Developers with larger portfolios will now have the leverage to pushback on conservative covers and retain more risk to reduce operational costs.
Premium pricing for BESS will continue to soften, but the rate of softening will slow as tightening regulation, and continued tariffs, disrupt some supply chains. Projects that can secure more favourable deductibles will be those that demonstrate granular control of systems, redundancy in balance of plant and disciplined O&M programs.
3. Casualty pressures deepen as renewable infrastructure converges with urban and industrial risk
As renewable infrastructure – predominantly solar and BESS – converge with urban population density, distribution hubs and high-value infrastructure, casualty risks have increased. Combined with litigation trends in U.S. construction markets, this has kept upward pressure on primary and excess liability.
In renewable energy, we expect 2026 to reflect:
- More scrutiny on subcontractor qualification and oversight in solar and BESS construction.
- Higher expectations for site safety plans and traffic management, especially in Commercial & Industrial solar and distributed generation projects.
- Increasing concern regarding the interface between renewable infrastructure and adjacent uses, such as data centres, logistics hubs or industrial parks.
For best-in-class portfolios, rates should stabilise or see mild uplift. For those with subcontractor-driven losses or repeated site-injury claims, rate increases will be meaningful.
4. Supply chain and grid constraints intensify contingent exposure concerns
While pricing in U.S. domestic and London markets will soften, delay in start-up (DSU), business interruption (BI) and contingent business interruption (CBI) exposures will remain major underwriter concerns, owing to supply chain delays, tariffs or weather-related interruption.
In solar, grid-originating outages were one of the biggest BI cost drivers of 2024–2025. We expect broader DSU and BI exposure to increase in 2026 as:
- Ageing transmission equipment and increased congestion create longer and more frequent outages.
- Data centres amplify local grid stress, influencing projects in the U.S. Southwest, Nordics, Spain and Ireland, while competing for electrical balance of plant and transmission infrastructure.
- Construction delays in offshore wind continue to push up DSU exposures linked to vessel availability, cable manufacture and late-stage commissioning risks.
We expect BI/CBI terms to come under more stringent review. Markets will reward clients who can clearly articulate redundancy strategies, such as inventory or swapping between projects, and defensible BI values.
5. Data becomes the decisive factor across underwriting lines
2025 proved the inflection point: structured data is no longer a differentiator; it is a requirement.
For 2026, we anticipate:
- Further digitalisation of the submission process, particularly for small and mid-scale solar portfolios where platform-based underwriting – including bulk-upload functionality – is becoming the norm.
- Brokers and insureds questioning the value of broad in-person surveys that add little value compared to a robust submission. We anticipate the use of already collected data from the Insured to improve the usefulness of a survey report — for example, the results of commissioning and annual operational performance.
- Greater integration of geospatial intelligence, with wildfire, SCS, hail and flood exposure mapping directly tied to deductible and limit structuring.
Clients with complete, verifiable datasets will continue to outperform the market – securing better deductibles, more capacity, and faster placements.
What this means for insureds and brokers next year
2026 will be a year that some existing trends deepen, while new opportunities emerge through more disciplined and innovative approaches:
- There is clear potential for further softening, especially in energy property and non-CAT portfolios. Underwriters and brokers will come under pressure from insureds, but both wholesalers and markets should remind clients that relationships and service have a value beyond rates.
- Underwriting quality thresholds will continue to rise, while CAT-exposed or data-poor portfolios will not capture the bottom of the market.
- BESS, wind and grid-connected assets remain areas where engineering and operational discipline matter as much as price.
- Casualty will remain challenging, requiring better site safety, subcontractor controls and litigation-aware programme design.
- Broadening of new asset classes and solutions. Forward looking brokers will work for opportunities to support key stakeholders, such as equipment manufacturers, or new verticals such as EV infrastructure or floating solar.
For insureds, the advantage in 2026 will rest with those able to present transparent data, clear engineering narratives and pragmatic risk-management strategies. For brokers and underwriters, success will depend on balancing speed and service with technical scrutiny, ensuring that softening does not erode underwriting integrity. As renewable markets evolve beyond subsidy-driven growth and into infrastructure-critical territory, the ability to pair specialist insight with adaptable risk-transfer structures will define the winners in the next 12 months.