Commercial Solar Panel Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $11/month

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On average, a solar panel system will cost at least $14,000. This estimate is for a simple system and will most likely go higher with more complex systems.

These renewable energy devices are significant investments, yet they will often not be integrated into your existing commercial property covers as these aren't permanent fixtures.

That's where commercial solar panel insurance comes in. Said commercial solar insurance protects your solar panel system from the occurrences listed within the policy documents. Usually, you'll be covered for everything from natural disasters to vandalism and theft.

Investing in commercial solar panel insurance ensures that you maintain your peace of mind as you are no longer worried about the financial investment you've made even when the unexpected occurs.

Insuring Solar Panels on Commercial Buildings

Making an investment in solar panels for your commercial buildings can be quite hefty. Unfortunately, this investment is not exempt from risks. You are exposed to the risk of vandalism, theft, damage, and other perils.

As such, you ought to look into insuring solar panels on your commercial buildings. This would cushion you from the losses you'd otherwise incur if this investment would be threatened.

Here are a number of policies you utilize in insuring solar panels on commercial buildings.

Commercial Property Insurance

Commercial property insurance doesn’t only cover the building but also anything that’s attached to it, including the solar panels. 

Therefore, if the solar panels in your commercial building get damaged by fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils, then commercial property insurance can cover the cost of solar panel repair or replacement. 

But note that the coverage you’ll get might be lower than the amount of intended coverage for the building itself. Insurance companies only allow their commercial property insurance to provide $2,500-$10,000 coverage if installed solar panels get destroyed or damaged. 

Business Owner’s Policy

A business owner’s policy comes with a commercial property coverage that covers the building, equipment, and installations. And so, you can also use this to cover the solar panels on your commercial building. 

Equipment Breakdown Insurance

Equipment breakdown insurance can be also used for insuring solar panels on commercial buildings. Coverage applies if the solar panels break down due to external factors such as heat or impact. 

Equipment breakdown insurance will cover the repair or replacement of your solar panels. The amount of coverage you’ll get will depend on the insured value of the solar panels installed in your commercial building. 

Environmental Risk Insurance 

As part of insuring solar panels on commercial buildings, you ought to consider purchasing environmental risk insurance. This policy indemnifies system owners from the risk of either environmental damage caused by the use of solar panels for commercial purposes.

There are a number of environmental policies that you want as part of your environmental risk insurance. These include

• Pollution legal liability policies-This policy covers any risk with unknown pollution conditions as well as any harm that might come to a third party due to the pollution

• Property transfer policies-This caveat on the policy transfers all the risk from the insured for any existing pollution claims and pays for any of the existing claims

• Clean cost cap or stop loss policies-These are a collection of customized policies that help create a cost stopgap for any of the continued cleanup efforts

Business Interruption Insurance 

As an astute commercial property owner or manager who made investments in solar panels, you ought to protect the cash flow from said investment with a business interruption policy. This would mean that if you lost sales as a result of the system not being operational, you'd get reimbursed for the loss.

Liability Insurance for Solar Panels

The use of solar panels in your own commercial space adds another level of liability to your day-to-day operations.

What if the solar panels get blown by strong winds and hit someone or a property nearby? It’s not also far-fetched to think that the solar panels in your building can cause a fire, which can damage nearby structures. 

That said, it’s important to discuss how you can get liability insurance for solar panels used for your business’s day-to-day operations. 

Your general liability insurance comes with a premises liability coverage. And so, you can use it to cover the bodily injuries or property damage that your business’s solar panels will cause. So how much coverage do you get? Expect for the policy to offer $1 million-$2 million for medical treatments, reimbursements for property damage, legal expenses, and court judgments. 

Solar Liability Insurance

A solar liability insurance package is a good coverage option if you're working as a solar installation contractor. Even with careful operations and the best safety measures, you could still incur unexpected losses that would destroy years of hard work. 

General Liability Insurance

The first policy you want as part of your solar liability insurance package is general liability insurance. This policy covers the policyholder from the costs of death, injury, or property damage. 

Further, if a solar panel that you've installed in the past causes an injury, the products and completed operations clause within your general liability policy will help pay for said damages.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

Other than general liability insurance for solar panels, you want to get a professional indemnity policy. Professional indemnity insurance grants protection if a client files a claim because you and employees committed negligence or mistakes during a solar panel installation project. 

Solar Rooftop Insurance 

Investment into solar rooftops is viewed by underwriters as being quite risky. This is likely due to the fact that the technologies are newer, and there are fewer installations relative to technological deployment. So what can you use as a solar rooftop insurance?

A commercial property policy can be also used as an insurance for solar rooftops since it will come with an outdoor installation coverage. 

On another note, the utility services interruption coverage of commercial property insurance will also help if your business primarily uses its solar rooftop for electricity. Utility services interruption coverage will take care of lost income. 

Another option for insuring the solar rooftop you own is an equipment insurance endorsement. This grants $2,500-$5,000 worth of coverage. Equipment insurance can be added to your general liability or commercial property policy. 

Solar Farm Insurance

In recent years, generating electricity through large-scale solar farms has gained tremendous popularity. This has seen an increase in the share of clean energy which in turn has meant huge investment into solar farms.

Despite this huge investment and growth in the niche, there's still a challenge in the solar farm insurance market. This is particularly since solar farms face significant risks, including the risk of theft, extreme weather, and breakdowns.

Fortunately, there are still providers willing to offer solar farm insurance despite the insurance losses that these risks could bring about. In fact, providers have taken it a step further by segmenting solar farm insurance into different phases and operational risks.

How Do You Get Solar Farm Insurance and How Does It Work?

Specifically, you could get solar farm insurance for either the construction phase or installation phase. The construction phase portion of the solar farm insurance policy helps you navigate the advanced loss of profits, terrorism, and public liability. On the other hand, the solar farm insurance operational phase helps you wade through the loss of revenue, terrorism, and public liability.

Overall, the solar farm insurance policy you get will help you protect the project's viability by minimizing disruptions and delays during whatever phase of the investment you are in.

Solar Power Plant Insurance

Once your solar power plant is up and running, you are susceptible to operational risks as well as physical damage or loss. To protect yourself, it is best that you invest in solar power plant insurance.

Solar plant insurance provides cover against loss or damage to any owned or managed plant. In the event that an insured loss occurs, the rooftop solar plant insurance will  be able to cover the sums you are legally liable to pay with respect to the damage to the property. Besides, the policy helps meet the continuing hiring charges that are levied on you.

In instances where you want to get project financing or are entering a loan agreement, the financer might require that you provide proof of solar power plant insurance before they can process the funds for you.

Commercial Solar Panel Insurance Cost

The average commercial solar panel insurance cost is $27 per month or $324  per year for a $1 million general liability coverage. Property coverage for solar panels, on the other hand, is $417 per month or $5,004 per year.

It is prudent to mention that insurance companies have come up with a singular calculation to determine how much insurance premiums you'd pay for your commercial solar panels. Specifically, the cost of insurance will be calculated by multiplying a "rate" with an "exposure unit".

Here’s a table showing how much the best insurance companies charge for their $1 million general liability insurance for commercial solar panels:

Solar Power Plant Insurance Cost

The cost of a $1 million general liability insurance for solar power plants is $180 per month or $2,160 per year. Factors that affect the cost of premiums are business size, claims history, number of employees, and others.