Get yours with VDE Hail Risk Intelligence

Below is a partial list of companies whose solar project natural catastrophe risk assessments integrate VDE's best-in-class Hail Risk Intelligence.

Hail accounts for less than 2% of solar project insurance claims by volume—but more than 50% of total dollar losses. However, hail is not the only high-hazard peril that affects solar project risk and insurability. For a holistic understanding of asset-level risk exposure, natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) models must also characterize the perils associated with:

• Earthquakes
• Named wind storms
• Inland floods
• Severe convective storms
• Wildfires

VDE Americas partners with leading solar project insurance and risk engineering providers to help the broader solar project stakeholder community evaluate severe hail exposure holistically and accurately profile natural catastrophe risk. By identifying and characterizing the economic risk of these perils during early-stage development, stakeholders can take steps to mitigate specific risks or properly price potential insurability concerns during project planning.

Since 2025, VDE Americas has partnered with Global Risk Consultants Corp. (GRC), the world’s leading provider of unbundled property risk engineering services, to integrate VDE’s hail probable maximum loss (PML) analytics into GRC’s comprehensive Natural Hazards risk assessment reports for the solar power industry. This partnership strengthens a shared commitment to data-driven risk management and risk transfer best practices.

The integrated Natural Hazards risk reports support better-informed design, procurement, and operational decisions—helping project stakeholders improve resiliency through equipment selection and best practices like “hail stow” tracker positioning. These risk reduction strategies may also lead to more favorable insurance terms, including potentially greater capacity being offered, and premium reductions.

The enhanced Natural Hazards risk assessment reports combine GRC’s 67 years of global, independent property risk consulting experience with VDE’s proprietary hail risk modeling expertise. VDE’s methodology integrates radar and ground-based meteorological data with the hail resilience characteristics of specific project equipment to deliver highly detailed, site-specific financial loss estimates.

Since 2021, CAC Specialty Natural Resources has partnered with VDE Americas to provide a comprehensive analysis of project risks that is unavailable elsewhere in the market. Specifically, Cirrus Advisers, a division of CAC Specialty, offers solar project risk and insurability reports informed not only by industry-standard catastrophic risk models but also by VDE Americas' best-in-class hail loss models.

The result of the partnership is an entirely unique all-catastrophe risk report providing site- and technology-specific engineered probable maximum loss (PML) and average annual loss (AAL) estimates for hail, the leading cause of solar project losses. The Cirrus Advisers Risk and Insurability Report is unlike any other Nat Cat peril report. It provides an analysis of all essential insurance-related issues facing a solar project. The report includes 1-in-500 year probable maximum loss (PML) estimates for hail, earthquakes, named windstorms, inland floods, severe convective storms, and wildfires. 

Making an upfront investment in due diligence and risk management related to site selection, natural catastrophe exposure, project design, equipment procurement, and insurance pricing can streamline project development, lower overall costs, mitigate risk exposure, and increase profitability. Cirrus Advisers also provides reports for wind, battery storage, and other clean tech projects.