WFO issues White Paper Insurability of Floating Offshore Wind

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.

Ralf Skowronnek, Chairman Insurance Subcommittee, Skowronnek & Bechnak International Risk and Insurance Advisors: “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.”

Gunnar Herzig, Managing Director, WFO: “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!”

The full White Paper can be accessed on the WFO website under: www.wfo-global.org