Robert Bates Email & Phone Number

Partner & Head of Claims at Nardac Insurance Services. I've been working in renewables for over 10 years, predominantly in the insurance sector. During my masters, I took an elective in energy policy & decarbonisation that got me interested in what was then called 'Alternative Energy'; wind and solar power generation projects that would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Not many would refer to renewables as 'alternative' these days. After university, I took an internship in the claims department at GCube Underwriting, a leading specialist (re)insurer of renewable energy projects. Here I handled claims across all lines of business, including onshore and offshore wind, solar PV & CSP, cargo, wave & tidal, battery storage, run of river hydro, biomass and biofuels. After a few years as a Claims Adjuster, I moved to the underwriting side of the business, steadily working up to head of offshore wind. Despite strong headwinds during the soft market cycle, we built a profitable book of business that mostly concentrated on European projects, but also supported early East Asian, US and floating offshore wind projects. I also supported GCube's wider book of business, principally onshore wind and solar in the US, Europe and emerging markets. I left GCube in 2020, and began working in the supply chain with Miros, a wave radar supplier building their presence in offshore wind. I then started my own independent risk consultancy, giving advice to developers, consultants, engineers and suppliers looking to pivot from oil & gas to renewables. I returned to insurance in 2021, this time as a broker for specialist wholesale & reinsurance broker NARDAC. Over my career, I've been involved in over 300 renewable energy projects across the world. During that time, I have absorbed enough technical expertise to understand the risks this technology poses, and develop risk mitigation and risk transfer strategies to manage the growth this sector will experience over the next few decades. Working in claims also highlighted the importance of the policy wording, and how price might not necessarily be the determining factor when deciding which policy suits a client best. I am a regular speaker at conferences on renewables, typically specialising on offshore wind, interconnectors and subsea cables.If you have a question about insurance for a renewable energy project - be it wind, solar, battery storage, or even hydrogen or carbon capture and storage - please feel free to message me on here.