kWh Analytics Reveals Top Risk Management Challenges for Renewable Energy and Battery Energy Storage Systems

Business Wire

2025 Solar Risk Assessment Report highlights challenges and opportunities to the renewable energy sector as solar and battery storage play a more prominent role in supporting the electrical grid.

Industry collaboration remains key to building resilient assets.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
kWh Analytics, the leading provider of Climate Insurance and risk management solutions for renewable energy, today released its 7^th annual Solar Risk Assessment (SRA), a comprehensive report designed to provide an objective, data-driven evaluation of solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) risk. The annual report includes contributions from academia, technology, financing, and insurance leaders in the solar energy and BESS industries.

This year’s report arrives at a pivotal moment for the renewable energy industry as solar and wind energy production have become imperative to the U.S. energy mix, and new renewable energy deployment shatters expectations and records. At the same time, these assets face challenges from intensified climate impacts, operational and safety concerns, and increased cybersecurity threats.

“As renewable energy becomes the backbone of the electrical grid, ensuring system resilience is no longer optional—it’s imperative," said Jason Kaminsky, CEO at kWh Analytics. “Keeping these assets operational requires unprecedented collaboration among asset owners, operators, financiers, insurers, brokers, and manufacturers. We are grateful for the valuable research and articles by this year’s Solar Risk Assessment contributors, who are helping to establish higher industry standards required to build infrastructure that withstands heightened risks.”

The 2025 report consists of 15 articles written by U.S. and global industry partners and provides an objective analysis of the top extreme weather, operational, and battery risks facing the renewable energy sector. Top findings by category include:

Extreme Weather Risk

	1.	kWh Analytics: Hail accounts for 73% of total losses by damage amount, despite representing only 6% of loss incidents
	2.	Central Michigan University: 99.27% of PV plants have a 10% annual chance of seeing Hail bigger than 2 inches in their close proximity
	3.	Kiwa PI Berlin: Cross-cutting analysis reveals frame to glass deviations exceed 5% of acceptable thresholds, highlighting needs for additional quality control & module testing
	4.	60Hertz Energy: Projects can experience 6% revenue annual loss from far away wildfire smoke
	5.	VDE Americas: Study Shows 100% hail stow success despite severe storm exposure
	6.	kWh Analytics and GroundWork Renewables: The risk of inelastic behavior: Physics-based models may be overestimating the benefit of hail stow by 48% for ~3in hail

Operational Risk

	1.	kWh Analytics: PV sites around the country are underperforming by 8.6% on average
	2.	Radian Generation: Cybercriminals targeting solar’s rapid growth: persistent threats demand action
	3.	Zeitview: Hot spot prevalence on sites increased from 0.24% in 2023 to 0.81% in 2024: A Sample of Newly Commissioned Sites in North America
	4.	Clean Power Research: Future climate models suggest potential -4.9% impact to PV production
	5.	kWh Analytics: AI models misclassify up to 20% of solar operational issues without domain-specific training

Battery Risk

	1.	Clean Energy Associates: 28% of energy storage systems show fire suppression issues during 2024 factory inspections
	2.	EPRI: To date, 72% of BESS failures have occurred within the first 2 years of installation
	3.	ACCURE Battery Intelligence: State of Charge (SOC) estimation errors for LFP batteries can exceed 15%
	4.	TWAICE: Lost in translation? O&M teams see up to 2x more BESS issues than asset managers

“Insurance plays a key role in protecting our infrastructure,” said Isaac McLean, Chief Underwriting Officer, kWh Analytics. “The Solar Risk Assessment enables us to identify emerging risks and understand what data we need to inform accurate underwriting and promote resiliency among project developers and asset owners.”

Key takeaways from the 2025 report include:

Hail continues to represent one of the most severe financial risks. Implementing proper module selection with thicker glass and advanced stow protocols that allow for steeper tilt angles can significantly reduce damage probability during severe storms.
While the emergence of AI technologies presents powerful opportunities for renewables, improperly trained models can give false results. Data quality will be imperative to incorporating these tools into the industry.
Cyber threat activity targeting renewable energy infrastructure is growing, necessitating enhanced protection strategies.
Quality inspections of energy storage systems identify issues with fire suppression systems and thermal management components, highlighting the critical need for improved manufacturing and monitoring systems.

To access the complete 2025 Solar Risk Assessment, please visit https://learn.kwhanalytics.com/solar-risk-assessment. This year’s report is also available in audio format on all major podcast platforms.

About kWh Analytics

kWh Analytics, a leading Climate Insurance provider, underwrites property insurance and revenue firming products for renewable energy assets. Our proprietary database of 300,000+ zero-carbon projects and $100B in loss data fuels advanced modeling and insights, enabling precise underwriting decisions. This data-driven approach incorporates resiliency measures in risk evaluation, promoting sustainable practices in the renewable energy sector.

Trusted by 5 of the top 10 global (re)insurance carriers, we’ve insured over $50 billion in assets to date. Our tailored solutions further our mission of providing best-in-class Insurance for our Climate. Recognized by InsuranceERM Climate and Sustainability Awards, kWh Analytics continues to pioneer in the renewable energy insurance sector.

Learn more at https://www.kwhanalytics.com/, or LinkedIn.