US climate insurance provider kWh Analytics has been awarded US$500,000 to develop a “tax credit insurance product” designed for use in the distributed renewable energy sector.
The product will use kWh Analytics’ database, covering over 300,000 renewable energy projects, and “AI-enabled underwriting assessments” to develop a standarised process for completing due diligence for tax credit insurance.
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Implemented in April 2024, tax credit transfers were finalised by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and experts at Crux wrote for PV Tech Power last year that these transfers have helped generate “billions of dollars” in new investment into the renewable energy space in general, and the solar industry in particular.
However, kWh Analytics notes that securing insurance for such deals requires “extensive and expensive due diligence” from specialised financiers, which makes such arrangements challenging in the small-scale solar space, where project capacity, and project investment, tends to be smaller.
The new kWh Analytics product aims to help overcome these barriers to tax credit insurance, helping more distributed solar projects participate in this lucrative component of the US clean energy transition.
“The transition to clean energy requires innovative financial solutions that work for projects of all sizes,” said Jason Kaminsky, kWh Analytics CEO. “This award will enable us to leverage our extensive data, insurance expertise and technological advantage to open new financing pathways for smaller renewable energy projects, supporting the deployment of clean energy across the country.”
Government support key to the energy transition
The money comes from non-profit InnSure’s Insurance Innovation Prize, supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), a competition that has seen applicants compete for a share of US$5 million of government finance for the development of “insurance products and policies” that “fill gaps” in the energy sector amid the clean energy transition. The award was launched in 2024, with award winners to present their solutions in May 2026.
Sustained government support is likely to be necessary if the US is to meet its clean energy goals, and the impending Trump administration has raised questions as to the level of government backing for such projects.
However, it has been suggested that the largely bipartisan support for the IRA means it will be difficult for the new administration to repeal parts of the act, and last year, Carl Fleming, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery, told PV Tech Premium that he “doesn’t foresee” renewable power tax credits, specifically, begin removed from the US clean energy space.
This is not kWh Analytics’ first collaboration with the US government. Last September, the company worked with the US Department of Energy to “develop innovative approaches” to improve the resilience of PV projects, a US$2.4 million project motivated, at least in part, by the risks associated with a lack of data in the solar insurance space.
