GCube expands renewables & weather underwriting team

International renewable energy and weather risk underwriting specialist GCube has expanded its team with the addition of two new underwriters in its London office, as it looks to continue its expansion.

GCube Underwriting Ltd. has this morning named Steve Allen and Adam Hearn to as a new Director and Senior Underwriter, both to be located in the firms London office.

The pair come from RSA Group, where Allen was Engineering, Construction and Renewable Energy Director, and Hearn had more than twenty years in power and engineering underwriting markets, with a specialism in renewable energy.

At GCube, Allen will be responsible for expanding the firm’s underwriting platform across new classes of business, as well as defining the global growth strategy for new territories that GCube may elect to enter.

Hearn will be focused on solar and wind energy related risks in the emerging markets, another step in growing the GCube London team to support renewable energy project developers, asset owners and investors in new regions of the world. Expansion into the emerging markets of products that hedge weather volatility for renewables projects could be vital in getting these efforts financed and off the ground.

“Steve and Adam’s respective track records and the breadth of their experience in the space speaks for itself, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to what is already a dynamic underwriting team,” commented Fraser McLachlan, Chief Executive Officer, GCube.

“Having worked on a significant portfolio of renewable energy assets in markets around the globe, Adam and Steve will be a great fit for us, and their expertise will be an invaluable asset to GCube going forwards.”

Allen said of his appointment; “I’m delighted to be joining GCube, who have established themselves as the market leader in underwriting renewable energy projects worldwide.”

“I’m looking forward to working as part of a specialist renewable energy underwriting team, and all the benefits this brings, both in terms of the strength of sector-wide relationships and the great depth of technology and market-specific data available,” added Hearn.

GCube offers a number of products that enable renewable energy projects or investors to mitigates the financial impact of volatile performance due to resource scarcity, so lack of wind, water, sun etc.

The company uses parametric triggers and indices based on weather metrics in order to create products that can protect the renewable energy sector against revenue volatility due to weather risks inherent in the delivery of the product.

Renewable energy related weather risks are a focus for certain providers of reinsurance and ILS capacity, who look to take on weather related risks. The broader ILS marketplace is steadily making more capacity available to back products produced by underwriters like GCube, or indeed look to offer their own solutions, or alongside partners as in the case of larger players like Nephila Capital.