Some wind projects have become structurally uninsurable. After years in this industry, I think I finally know why — and what to do about it.
Over my 13+ years with Bladefence I was known as a vocal advocate for preventive maintenance and long-term asset management – something that for the longest time has seemed out of this world for the industry. Not because the owners would not want it, but because there have always been conflicting interests between the parties. It is a complex issue, but in the end, it comes down to this: the main goal of the manufacturers (OEM) is to minimize the warranty and service contract costs while the owners drive for maximum generation and asset longevity.
The basic idea of an OEM long-term “full-service agreement” (FSA) is a good one. Like one OEM put it on their website already back in 2010: “The FSA is designed to provide wind turbine owners with total support for their planned and unplanned maintenance and operations needs.” Similar models are being used in many other industries too. I have had an FSA in every vehicle I have ever owned when the OEM offered one, for example.
The problem we now have has its roots in the rapid pace of growth and technological maturity issues of the turbines. The planned maintenance has not been able to address all the issues, and problems that were never anticipated have become major ones. This has created a situation where the availability guarantees of the FSAs hit their liquidated-damage caps and the OEM incentive to fix the issues is reduced or removed completely. This leads many owners to chronically exceed their O&M budgets and the problems become systemic. To mitigate the issues, some of the owners are running their own crews, but it only really works for the larger owners when you have the scale.
The problem is made worse by the non-integrated data structure between the parties. The data is siloed and each party has its small view and acts on what is solely in their own best interest. The overall increased number of drone inspections has certainly helped, but they have not solved the issue completely. This has been evident in insurance where inspection data has been used for pricing but has not included the repair data. This has not significantly changed the loss curve, and some projects have become structurally uninsurable.
So, what is the answer?
Over the past 15 years I have had many great discussions with some very bright people about what should be done. This problem is unique in the way that the answers have been almost too obvious for an exceedingly long time. The industry needs more preventive maintenance, integrated data and most importantly a system that rewards proper and timely maintenance and shares the upside with the value chain. Danny Ellis and I have been developing something that, we believe, will solve this problem. It aligns the incentives by tying insurance pricing directly to maintenance quality — integrating inspections, repair data, and underwriting into one.
We are soft launching the product during a private dinner adjacent to Cleanpower 2026 event in Houston in a couple of weeks. We still have a few seats left for interested owners and operators. DM me or Danny for a seat.
You do not want to miss this.
#WindEnergy #AssetManagement #CLEANPOWER2026
