Climate insurance startup kWh raises $20M

kWh, a company that tailors insurance policies for renewable energy installations such as wind and solar facilities, has raised $20 million in a Series B round, the company announced Tuesday morning.

Driving the news: The company says it will use the money to help rapidly scale up renewable energy facilities by helping developers gain access to capital.

• Richard Matsui, kWh’s founder and CEO, told Axios that traditional insurers don’t have the data needed to underwrite risk for new types of power plants, and instead, still focus on writing policies for more conventional energy facilities.

Details: Matsui said kWh Analytics has the world’s largest database of renewable energy project performance, with details on about 300,000 operating assets in the U.S., which it uses to understand and predict how renewable projects will perform.

• Its first product, known as the Solar Revenue Put, can be used to guarantee a certain amount of solar power output, lowering the cost that solar developers incur for accessing capital.
• Along with the funding, the company announced the debut of all-risk coverage to protect solar, energy storage and wind projects from physical damage.

The big picture: kWh Analytics has now raised about $30 million from investors including Lacuna Sustainable Investments, Anthemis Group and Engie, as well as individual investors Matthias Weber and Chuck Wallace. It also received funding from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative.