Wind-generated electricity rose by 17% in 2021. The American Clean Power Association estimates that there are nearly 70,000 wind turbines generating renewable energy.
As a wind turbine business owner, you are undoubtedly excited about the exponential growth in the clean power industry. It is imperative that you are set up for the future of renewables through a healthy wind turbine insurance policy.
This policy will protect your business against many types of liability claims from the public, customers, employees, and more. Moreover, you can use your coverage to cover the cost of occupational injuries or diseases sustained by wind turbine technicians and other employees. This article will examine some key components that you will want to consider adding to your business's financial protection.
CoverWallet | NEXT (Best) | Thimble | Hiscox | The Hartford | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Per occurrence limit | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 |
Aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 |
Products and completed operations aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Advertising injury coverage aggregate limit | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Tenant’s legal liability coverage limit | $300,000/$1,000,000 | $300,000 | $100,000 | $100,000 | $1,000,000 |
Waiver of subrogation included? | Yes | No | Included | Can be included | No |
Hired/non-owned auto liability coverage included? | Yes | No | No | Can be included | Can be included |
Equipment breakdown floater included? | No | Yes | Yes | Can be included | Can be included |
Can you get a certificate of insurance online? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Name additional insureds? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deductible | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Your wind power insurance would greatly benefit from general liability coverage. This policy protects your business against claims resulting from third parties for property damage and injuries. Examples of this coverage include:
Someone wanders onto your wind farm and injures themselves on your property
While negotiating a contract, a customer slips and falls on your business premises and needs medical treatment
Your wind turbine insurance can be further bolstered by additional protections, which include:
Cyber liability–Provides protection for your wind turbine business from ransomware, phishing scams, and security breaches
Employment practices–Covers your business practices that result in employee allegations of discrimination, wrongful termination, and workplace harassment
Wind turbine general liability insurance will have a typical coverage of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million in aggregate.
No, your wind turbine business will not be required to have general liability insurance, but it is still highly recommended that you have some. Unexpected events can result in liabilities that have the possible chance to bankrupt your business. Also, some clients and agencies you do business with might require that you have some form of liability coverage or prove that you can cover certain types of liabilities.
CoverWallet | NEXT | Thimble (Best) | Hiscox | The Hartford | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Per occurrence limit | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
Name additional insureds? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Waiver of subrogation included? | Yes | No | Yes | Can be included | No |
Errors and omissions coverage of wind energy insurance programs protects your business from mistakes that you or your employees make. This insurance covers oversights, negligence, and bad service claims that your company might contend with. Example situations include:
You overlook some wind turbine maintenance that affects your electricity production
Your business makes a mistake on an agreement to sell electricity to a local power utility
Media liability insurance–Adds protection for content your business published on social media platforms or other business websites.
Extended reporting period–This lets you extend the time you have to file your claim on your errors and omissions insurance
Your wind turbine errors and omission insurance will have a coverage limit of $1 million per occurrence and $1 million in aggregate.
An occurrence policy covers events that happen during the timeframe of your policy, while a claims-made policy only covers claims that you file during the policy period. Your errors and omissions insurance can be either of these two.
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CoverWallet | NEXT (Best) | Thimble | Hiscox | The Hartford | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Building coverage limit (minimum) | $50,000 | $260,000 | $25,000/$500,000 | $25,000 | $60,000 |
Contents coverage limit (minimum) | $50,000 | $22,000 | $25,000/$500,000 | $25,000 | $60,000 |
Outdoor signs | Excluded | $2,500 | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Accounts receivable | Excluded | Excluded | $5,000/10,000 | Included | Excluded |
Money and securities | Excluded | $2,500 | $1,000 | Included | Excluded |
Lock and keys | Excluded | $2,500 | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Business interruption floater | Excluded | Included | Included | Included | Excluded |
Equipment breakdown floater | Excluded | Included | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Inland marine insurance floater | Excluded | Excluded | $10,000 | Excluded | Excluded |
Employee dishonesty floater | Excluded | $5,000 | $2,500 | Included | Excluded |
Commercial property insurance is a policy for your wind turbine business that covers damage to your business premises and any other property stored there. Coverage examples include:
Your wind farm catches on fire and needs immediate repair
A local prankster defaces your wind farm’s property. The graffiti caused some damages that must be reversed
Earthquake protection–This covers your building and contained business property when it suffers damage from a mudslide, landslide, or earthquake
Crime insurance–You can use this to recover losses caused by theft, social engineering, forgery, and other types of dishonest acts
Your typical coverage limit for your wind turbine commercial property insurance will be around $50,000 for the building and $50,000 for contained business property.
Wind turbine insurance companies will be unable to cover earthquakes. For extreme disasters, you will need to purchase endorsements. Also, if you damage your own property intentionally, you will not be able to get that event covered.
CoverWallet | Thimble (Best) | NEXT | Hiscox | The Hartford | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
General liability aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $300,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 |
Commercial property coverage limit | $50,000 | $500,000 | $260,000 | $25,000 | $75,000 |
Optional policies can be added? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Name additional insureds for free? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
BOP discount? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
A business owner’s policy is an insurance package that combines general liability and commercial property protection. Example situations where this can help include events like:
Your wind turbine accidentally harms a member of the public that is on your property.
A thief trespasses onto your wind farm and steals valuable tools or equipment.
Equipment breakdown–Helps protect business equipment int he case it is damaged due to an electrical or mechanical failure
Flood insurance–This add-on can protect you from damage resulting from flood waters that often does not come standard with commercial property policies
Business owner’s policy coverage limits will range between $500,000 and $2 million for liability protection. Commercial property insurance ranges between $15,000 and $50,000.
No, your BOP will need to be augmented with errors and omissions coverage because that type of policy is typically not standard. This can be an essential pickup if you want to insulate yourself from financially devastating lawsuits, judgments, and lawyer fees related to business mistakes.
NEXT | Thimble | Hiscox | The Hartford | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Aggregate limit | $3,000/$10,000 | $2,500/$5,000 | $15,000/$25,000 | $5,000-$10,000 |
Covers hired and borrowed equipment? | $3,000/$10,000 | $2,500/$5,000 | No | Yes |
Miscellaneous equipment also covered? | $5,000/$10,000 | No | Yes | Yes |
Offered as an endorsement to general liability insurance? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deductible | $500 | $500 | $0 | $0 |
Tools and equipment insurance protects your business equipment from sudden events that cause them to need to be repaired or replaced. Examples of when to use this coverage include:
While working on your wind turbine, a tool breaks due to another person damaging it
One of your crucial pieces of wind farm equipment becomes damaged after a sudden downpouring of rain
Tools and equipment insurance for wind turbine businesses will cover damages between $5,000 and $20,000.
Your employees will greatly benefit from a workers’ compensation insurance policy. Workers comp pays benefits to compensate workers for lost wages and medical treatments resulting from workplace injuries or illnesses. Example situations include:
An employee is climbing a wind turbine to make repairs but falls and needs medical treatment
One of your employees develops a chronic health condition from their job that limits their range of movement
Yes, often, a workers’ comp policy will automatically include employer liability insurance. This insurance adds protection to the employer if an employee decides to sue for their workplace injury.
It depends. The area you do business in will set rules of when businesses will require workers comp. Most states typically require the purchase of workers' compensation for any company that has employees.
The excess liability coverage of your wind farm insurance program extends the coverage limits of an existing policy. You use excess liability to add additional coverage to one of your policies so it can cover incidents past its normal limit. Examples include:
Before your policy expires, you run out of coverage but still have incidents that the costs are stacking up for
A damaging incident exceeds your policy limit of $1 million, so you buy an excess liability policy to supplement the coverage
The main difference between the two is that excess liability only covers one policy at a time. An Umbrella policy can extend the coverage of multiple policies at once.
Cyber liability insurance is a policy that protects your wind turbine business from the costs associated with data breaches and cyber-attacks. Below is a list of some situations where this insurance coverage may apply.
A data hack compromised a client's personal information
Your company data gets stolen, and you must rebuild your reputation through a crisis management team
Cyber business interruption–A policy that helps you recover lost income and pays for other expenses due to a third party that your business relies on going down due to a system failure.
Hacker damage–Helps you repair your network, website, or electronic data after a hacker causes damage to it
Typical coverage for cyber liability will be around $1 million. Higher limits may be able to be applied depending on the policy and insurer.
Yes, a cyber liability policy will cover events of negligence, like your employees clicking on a bad email that downloads something nasty and crashes your network. Phishing emails are one of the primary ways that cybercriminals can gain access to your servers to steal valuable documents and attempt to hold your system hostage.
Yes, small wind turbine insurance components will not discriminate on coverage based on the size of your wind turbine. You will want to pay attention to your policy coverage limits, though. If you run out of coverage, you may have to pay out of pocket for the remaining balance of a covered peril.
Cost per Month | Cost per Year | Deductible | |
---|---|---|---|
General liability insurance | $110 | $1,320 | $0-$500 |
Professional liability insurance | $115 | $1,380 | $500-$1,000 |
Cyber liability insurance | $125 | $1,500 | $500-$1,000 |
Excess liability insurance | $112 | $1,344 | $500-$1,000 |
Commercial property insurance | $200 | $2,400 | $1,000-$2,000 |
Business owner’s policy | $310 | $3,720 | $1,000-$2,000 |
Tools and equipment insurance | $117 | $1,404 | $1,500 |
Workers compensation insurance | $100 | $1,200 | $500-$1,000 |
The average wind turbine insurance cost is $110 per month or $1,320 per year for a $1 million general liability policy, depending on your insurer and policy selections. Factors that affect the cost of premiums are claims history, business history, policy limits, and more. Here’s a table showing the rates of companies we recommend:
Cost per Month | Cost per Year | Best For | |
---|---|---|---|
NEXT | $50 | $600 | Best overall; Fastest general liability insurance for wind turbines |
CoverWallet | $88 | $1,056 | Renewable energy business insurance |
The Hartford | $75 | $900 | Comparing wind turbine insurance quotes online |
Tivly | $62 | $744 | Comparing wind turbine insurance quotes over the phone |
Thimble | $57 | $684 | Short-term general liability insurance for wind turbines |
Hiscox | $80 | $960 | Customer service experience |
Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!
The top insurance companies that offer wind turbine insurance each bring something unique to the discussion. Below are our reviews of the best wind turbine insurance companies. Read some of the reviews below to know their pros, cons, and average rate for a $1 million general liability policy.
Best overall
Issues an online proof of insurance instantly
Fastest general liability insurance for wind turbines
Great customer service and reputation
Excellent rates
Outstanding value for money
Get a 10% discount if you buy two or more policies
Couldn't find any
NEXT is an online insurance provider that is trusted by over 420,000 business owners. They have a 4.7/5 rating with their customers and have an A- financial score with AM Best. With NEXT, you get a live certificate, quotes in less than 5 minutes, and phenomenal service.
Best for: Best overall; Fastest general liability insurance for wind turbines
Average cost: $50 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Multinational coverage
Services to help renewable energy businesses cut costs
Renowned company for workers compensation insurance
Customers report that discounts and promotions are harder to come by
The Hartford is a fantastic insurer for multiple clean energy providers in the industry. They offer a specialized renewable energy business insurance package that protects your business with commercial property, general liability, workers' compensation, and more.
Best for: Renewable energy business insurance
Average cost: $88 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Compare rates from top carriers
Matches you with insurers based on company structure
Easily manage your insurance policies online
Not an insurance company but an insurance broker
CoverWallet offers critical wind turbine insurance components like cyber liability, commercial property, employment practices, and general liability insurance. They offer policies from partners like Markel, Hiscox, Progressive, and Chubb.
Best for: Comparing wind turbine insurance quotes online
Average cost: $75 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Strong knowledge base for your industry
A partner of many reputable insurance companies
Compare quotes over the phone
Less online integration
Tivly is an insurance platform that is experienced at connecting businesses with the right policies. Your wind turbine insurance policy will find refuge with over 200 partners to exhaust your search with. Tivly boasts an A rating and accreditation with the Better Business Bureau. Call now to compare quotes over the phone.
Best for: Comparing wind turbine insurance quotes over the phone
Average cost: $62 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Commercial property insurance covers outdoor property, including things like trees and shrubs
Sells a short-term general liability policy
Multiple add-ons to BOP and general liability insurance
Some products are subject to state availability
Thimble is a flexible insurer with a standout commercial property insurance policy that is perfect for wind turbine businesses. It includes numerous features that make it a top competitor. Thimble maintains an A+ from the BBB and an A rating from AM Best.
Best for: Short-term general liability insurance for wind turbines
Average cost: $57 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Passion for customer service evidenced by positive feedback
Offers worldwide coverage as long as the claim is filed in the US or Canada
Worldwide coverage
14-day money-back guarantee
Does not possess a local agent network
Hiscox offers small business coverage in 49 states with a streamlined and efficient policy management process. Wind turbine insurance policies benefit from policies like general liability, workers comp, errors and omissions insurance, and more. Hiscox is a well-established company with an A from AM Best and an A+ from financial rater Fitch.
Best for: Customer service experience
Average cost: $80 per month
Our rating: 10/10
Use anyone except Employers. Period. They are non-transparent and shameful. After I complained long enough to warrant a call from a supervisor, the supervisor called back from a PRIVATE NUMBER (no caller ID), left a message that they are not reversing their decision (without any communication with me), and failed to leave a phone number for me to call back. She was hiding! They also fact find via email and phone calls, which is terrific for speed and communication. However, after setting a precedence of email or phone calls, they send time sensitive information via email, without any heads up... they are hoping you miss it and forfeit via expiration. Evil policies. Go elsewhere.
This place is an absolute joke of a company and should be ashamed of the way they conduct business. I was hurt on the job at the end of July and it took them just shy of 7 weeks to issue out a paycheck to me. Yes the amount was back dated but still. Not many have the luxury of not receiving a paycheck for almost 2 months. To top it all off, the original adjuster marked me down for the wrong state which caused a problem from the get go, I've had 3 different adjusters now since each one can't seem to figure out the simplicity of my claim. All my paperwork which includes, my job, house, and drs visits all are from the same state and city but yet some how I have been filed under a completely different state 1500 miles away. They do not answer your phone calls or emails no matter how many you leave. I've had to escalate my frustrations to the supervisors of each of these individuals in order to even get some kind of response. I've had more communication and information given to me about my claim from the customer service representatives then the actual adjusters.......... please tell me how that works?! A serious overhaul needs to happen here in order to serve your clients the way they deserve to be taken care of. 10/10 do not recommend this company to a single soul on earth
I have never had the displeasure of working with a more incompetent and disrespectful person in my life. I’m an injured worker and the adjuster that was assigned to my case was named Carrie Furgeson. In the past 6 weeks that I’ve been injured and out of work I have only been able to get ahold of her twice, not for lack of trying. I have left countless voicemails, countless emails, and she ignores them all. When I am finally able to get ahold of her I’m greeted with terrible customer service. She is rude, she talks over me and I’m hardly able to get a word in edgewise. She spelled my name wrong on my documents even after I spelled it for her properly countless times, this caused a whole new issue with my bank. I have bill collectors from the hospital calling me demanding payment and Carrie Furgeson won’t do a single thing to help, or to get them paid. All of my documentation is in Colorado, my job is in Colorado, my address is in Colorado, all my Dr offices and appointments have been in Colorado and Carrie still managed to hold my claim because she wasn’t sure what state she needed to file it under. It’s been 6 weeks since my Injury and my company still hasn’t received the wage paperwork to fill out so they can get me my correct wages. When she’s not ignoring me she’s answering my questions with “I don’t know” well I don’t know how she got this job, because apparently she doesn’t know anything about it. She is a disgusting morose individual inside and out and I genuinely wish her the worst in all of her future endeavors. I highly recommend you don’t use this company. Please if you are a business owner and your looking into this company please don’t use them. I’m sure they have the cheapest payment and that’s why companies use them in the first place, but you will be doing your employees a grave disservice by forcing them to venture into this absolute dumpster fire of a company. I would rate 0/5 if possible but 1 was the lowest I was allowed.
Their general liability insurance purchase process is simply the best online experience I've ever had in my life!
As long as they cover your line of business, you're literally covered! best rates, best coverage, best online experience, best professionals, can't be happier that I chose them!