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Last year, we introduced the inaugural Resilient Power Report as a companion to our annual Solar Risk Assessment, with the simple goal of celebrating and learning from what’s working in renewable energy. This year’s edition arrives amidst the exciting milestone of kWh Analytics’ acquisition by Beazley, a company of Zurich Insurance and a leading global specialty insurer that shares our commitment to supporting the energy transition. As renewable energy becomes central to the grid, and climate risks to energy infrastructure intensify, getting resilience right has never mattered more.
The 2026 report features real-world case studies from projects that withstood some of the biggest risks facing renewable energy assets: hail, wildfire, typhoons, winter storms, and battery fires. In West Texas, automated hail stow protected more than a million solar panels during a severe hailstorm, holding module damage to a fraction of a percent. In Guam, an assessment of nearly 30 rooftop solar systems found that hardware design, not wind speed, was the biggest predictor of typhoon damage. Elsewhere, a well-rehearsed shutdown protocol carried a renewable energy facility safely through a wildfire, and snowmelt modeling combined with remote stow brought solar capacity back online 10 days sooner than natural melt would have. In battery storage, single-use fuses and adjusted charging cycles cut the expected loss from a thermal event by about 95%.
Together, these findings show that resilience depends on pairing the right technology with the right operational protocols. That resilience should be rewarded by partners who understand the value of these measures and price risk to reflect them.
Our contributors
Top three takeaways
Resilience comes from pairing the right technology with the right operational protocols.
Small hardware choices can decide whether an asset survives a major storm.
Partners who understand risk mitigation can successfully reward it.
Featured articles
Rising to the Challenge: Managing BESS Fire Risk
By: Mike Kalnas, Adam Shinn, kWh Analytics
When a line of battery energy storage systems developed an HVAC flaw that led to multiple container fires, asset owners were left to manage the risk largely on their own after the manufacturer could no longer provide engineering support. For one solar and storage owner with over $100 million invested in the technology, a single thermal event spreading across a battery row could have meant an eight-figure insured loss. By adjusting charge-discharge cycling to give HVAC systems time to cool, and installing single-use fuses between battery modules, the owner cut the expected loss from a thermal event by approximately 95%. The owner also renewed its property insurance without any deterioration in terms.
Same Storm, Different Fates: Two Roofs on Guam Show that Simple Features Can Reduce Damage
By: James Elsworth, National Laboratory of the Rockies
In May 2023, Category 4 Typhoon Mawar struck Guam with wind gusts of up to 137 mph. Engineers from the National Laboratory of the Rockies assessed 29 PV systems across the island and found a telling contrast on two adjacent school rooftops: under the same wind conditions, one system lost most of its modules while the other was undamaged. The difference came down to the clamps securing the panels, and the pattern held island-wide. Sites using the failed rail-mounted clamp design averaged 54% damage, compared with just 3% for installations from one racking manufacturer. More robust clamps would add an estimated 0.03% to 0.5% to total system costs, a lesson that applies directly to hurricane-exposed coastlines in the US and Caribbean.
Winter Storm Fern: A Data-Driven Approach to Snow Response
By: Matthew Messer, Esteban Shrick, Madison Energy Infrastructure
As Winter Storm Fern moved across the eastern United States in January 2026, Madison Energy Infrastructure faced up to 28 inches of snow across its East Coast portfolio, with below-freezing temperatures expected to linger for days or weeks. Ahead of the storm, Madison issued remote snow stow commands and dispatched technicians to manually position trackers at older sites. It also built a data-driven framework using the National Laboratory of the Rockies’ snow analysis to decide whether clearing each site would pay off. The response returned 6 MW of solar capacity to service 10 days sooner than natural melt would have allowed. It also established a repeatable process for deciding when to stow, when to clear snow, and when to simply wait.
Tilt and Survive: How Auto-Stow Protected 1 Million Panels in West Texas
By: Ross Heiman, Clearway | Andrew Griffiths, Nextpower
In June 2025, a severe hail outbreak tore across West Texas, with hailstones as large as five inches reported near Lubbock. Clearway’s 452 MW Texas Solar Nova sites, home to more than a million solar modules, sat squarely in the storm’s path. Nextpower trackers with Hail Pro™ technology automatically stowed the panels to 60 degrees before the hail hit. Fewer than 200 modules, less than 0.018% of the modules across the assets, were damaged, and no insurance claims were filed. Clearway is now deploying the technology across its entire fleet.
From Risk Assessment to Response: Operational Readiness During a Wildfire Event
By: Daniel Blow, Manager, Remote Operations Center, Deriva Energy
When a significant wildfire put one of Deriva Energy’s utility-scale renewable energy facilities at risk, an energized site in the fire’s path threatened both the equipment and the safety of the firefighters working the blaze. Deriva’s 24/7 Remote Operations Center activated established emergency protocols, coordinated with internal teams and external operating partners, and made the deliberate decision to proactively de-energize the facility. Once the threat was contained, the facility was safely restored without damage. The case shows that resilience increasingly depends on disciplined operational decision-making as much as on physical assets.
“As renewable energy assets become central to the grid, and climate risks to energy infrastructure intensify, getting resilience right has never mattered more. The developers, owners, and operators we work with are committed to finding better ways to operate and protect the assets they build. The Resilient Power Report is one way we highlight their best practices: by sharing data-driven results of what works so the entire industry can act with confidence.”
