South Africa's renewable energy sector has evolved into one of the country's most significant areas of private infrastructure investment in the years since the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) was launched in 2011.

Between 2011 and 2025, SA has attracted more than R292 billion in renewable energy investment, bringing over 9.6GW of generation capacity online. As projects continue to grow in scale and sophistication, the conversation is shifting beyond generation capacity towards the systems that enable these investments to succeed.

With that, businesses need to assess the risk profiles associated with renewable energy assets, which present differently to traditional infrastructure. For instance, the many contractors involved in a project, new technologies, weather-related exposures and complex financing arrangements all require insurance solutions that reflect the realities of the sector.

Tanya van der Westhuizen, Head of Renewable Energy at GIB, says that South Africa's renewable energy market has matured rapidly over the past decade, but insurance hasn't always evolved at the same pace. “As projects become larger and investment structures more sophisticated, developers and financiers are looking for insurance solutions that understand the specific risks associated with renewable energy rather than trying to adapt traditional approaches.”

It is against this backdrop that GIB has partnered with global specialty insurance and reinsurance broker McGill and Partners to launch Protea Green, a specialist insurance solution developed with South Africa's renewable energy sector in mind.

Responding to a changing market

Protea Green is designed to support renewable energy developers, project owners and lenders throughout construction and operations elements of the lifecycle. Combining GIB's local market expertise with McGill and Partners' international insurance capabilities, the solution provides streamlined access to A-rated insurance capacity backed by specialist underwriting expertise.

According to van der Westhuizen, the insurance conversation has become increasingly strategic as renewable energy projects continue to mature.

“Insurance is no longer viewed simply as a compliance requirement or a transaction completed before construction begins. It has become an important part of how projects are financed, managed and protected over the long term. Developers and lenders are looking for partners who understand both the commercial realities of renewable energy projects and the evolving risk landscape that surrounds them,” she says.

“South Africa is one of the continent's most active renewable energy markets, supported by strong investment and an increasingly sophisticated project pipeline. Working alongside GIB allows us to combine international insurance expertise with local market insight to deliver solutions that are aligned to the needs of renewable energy developers, owners and financiers,” says Tom Sexton, Head of Renewables, Power and Energy at McGill and Partners.

He adds that Protea Green is supported by a panel of leading international insurers, including Aviva, Volt and Munich Re Specialty – Global Markets Syndicate, alongside a dedicated panel of follow insurers. Further, the solution also benefits from McGill and Partners’ strategic collaboration with AIG, providing significant underwriting capacity across its specialty portfolio.

“We're seeing renewable energy markets around the world evolve in very similar ways, where expectations placed on insurance increase as projects become more sophisticated and attract greater levels of investment. South Africa has already reached this point, and is now a market looking for solutions that combine local insight with access to global expertise and capacity, and that's exactly what this partnership has been built to deliver,” says Sexton.

As South Africa continues expanding its renewable energy capacity, the supporting ecosystem will need to evolve alongside it. Insurance may not attract the same attention as financing or engineering, but it has become an increasingly important component in enabling renewable energy projects to move from concept to operation with greater certainty.