Enhanced defects coverage for established wind farms
July 1, 2011 by Paul Dvorak
Filed under Insurance, Wind Power News
An insurance company focused on renewable-energy projects has launched an Enhanced Defects Coverage program. This provides a realistic and dependable response to equipment upkeep and maintenance when no longer covered by a traditional manufacturer’s warranty. Enhanced coverage comes at a critical time for the international wind energy industry as machinery warranties expire and wind-farm owners and operators face increased maintenance and repair bills and further unexpected additional costs.
To address the problem, the GCube Enhanced Defects Coverage Program provides financial coverage, backed by practical, hands-on support for a notoriously complex area of the wind-energy market. As part of the policy, wind farm owners and operators are covered for any unforeseen and unscheduled repairs associated with defective wind-turbine parts, faulty workmanship, and design and the longer-term cost of removal and repair. This depth of coverage is combined with a series of key oversight activities that take place at the end of the initial warranty period.
“A post warranty defects program of this nature marks a critical turning point in the evolution of the North American wind industry” said GCube President John McLane.
“Traditionally, large-scale project owners have relied on the original equipment manufacturers to take care of most unscheduled maintenance and turbine repair. Once warranties expire, large scale project owners are faced with the question of whether to take on-going operations and maintenance activities in-house. This can result in a need to address unplanned and unexpectedly high maintenance and service costs, coupled with the logistical and financial headache associated with turbine inactivity, as machinery spends weeks, and sometimes months, offline. Enhanced Defects Coverage puts a cap on those costs and protect the project’s incomes balance sheet,” says McLane.
GCube
www.Gcube-insurance.com
Windpower Engineering Editor Paul Dvorak is an experienced mechanical engineer. Paul has seven years of hands on mechanical engineering experience and 23 years of technical writing. Paul is constantly in correspondence with wind turbine manufacturers and wind power researchers. Thanks to this correspondence, he is able to write about wind engineering topics before any other editor in the wind space.
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