Solar panel installation has become one of the most in-demand genres of recent years – and, from an insurance point of view, a classic borderline case: erection-type work, often carried out on a roof, with valuable, easily resold equipment sitting out in the open. Both installers and clients are well served by knowing where the key points of cover lie.
- A solar project typically follows EAR logic: installation + grid connection + testing and commissioning.
- For roof-mounted installations, the existing building (opening up the roof, fire protection) is a separate question.
- Panels and inverters feature heavily in theft statistics – with expectations around storage and security.
- For ground-mounted solar farms, hail, storms and vandalism are the main risks.
On the roof: two genres meet
Roof-mounted installation is simultaneously erection work (the mounting structure, panels, inverter, grid connection) and work carried out on a roof – the risk picture from the roof article applies here too: opened-up covering, penetrations, temporary openings. The client's building is a matter of existing property; the quality of the fixings and penetrations, meanwhile, is fertile ground for water-ingress disputes further down the line. The electrical side (DC cabling, the inverter environment) calls for fire-safety care – in line with whatever regulations are in force.
The equipment's journey and storage
Panels represent significant value by the pallet-load, and inverters by the unit – and both are easy to resell, which is why theft risk is a priority concern. Storage before installation (depot, site) and transport are matters for the storage and transit extension; for overnight storage on site, a locked container or a security presence is the typical expectation.
On the ground: the solar-farm genre
A ground-mounted solar farm sits on a large, unprotected area of terrain: hail, storms and vandalism/theft are the main loss patterns, while testing, commissioning and grid connection are the sensitive stage on the EAR side (erection article). Site-specific clauses for natural perils – hail, flood and inland inundation – carry particular weight here: natural-catastrophe losses.
After handover: who protects the system?
Installation cover ends at handover – from that point, the solar system becomes part of the client's property: for a family home, it typically moves into the home insurance policy (as a notifiable increase in value!); for a company, into the property insurance. Sorting out the switchover can also be a nice touch of service from the installer: a single sentence in the handover record so the client knows what to report to their insurer – after-handover article. Any maintenance-period call-backs, meanwhile, are bridged by the maintenance extension.
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