TransRe ⏤ formerly the Transatlantic Reinsurance Company ⏤ is a Alleghany Corporation subsidiary, wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway ⏤ needed some support on complex research topics.
When they approached us for help, TransRe was trying to better understand the risks associated with insuring and re-insuring renewable energy operations.
Renewable energy was a new sector for TransRe, so research-backed reports were needed to help front-line agents and managers understand the industry better.
In this case study, we’ll show you how we solved these problems for TransRe.
Identifying TransRe’s Pain Points: What Problems Needed Solving?
Founded in 1977, TransRe is a New York-based re-insurance giant with 21 offices worldwide and hundreds of staff. Revenues are reported at around $3.4 billion, and TransRe is one of the top 10 global non-life reinsurers as measured by gross written premiums (GWP).
In 2024, GWP for TransRe was $6.3bn, and it was rated A++ across the board. TransRe’s core products are treaty and facultative reinsurance underwriting for dozens of sectors, like health, property, marine, agriculture, and even counter-terrorism risks.
Before they could get more involved in the sector, TransRe wanted a deeper understanding of the renewable energy sector. That’s where Uncommon came in and helped them solve this particular problem.
- Understanding the renewables sector
Governments, industry leaders, and investors know that the world needs to triple global renewable energy outputs by 2030. It’s one of many ways that humanity can offset and start to reduce our impact on the planet.
In 2023 ⏤ when we produced these reports ⏤ there was a surge in investment into renewable energy worldwide (especially China). It was worth over $1 trillion in 2023, and is now worth over $1.3tn. A consequence of this is that insurance and re-insurance underwriters like TransRe started to take a more involved interest in the sector.
However, TransRe needed an expert research and studio partner who could really take the time and effort to investigate renewables with care. This way, business leaders and managers could consider whether it was worth backing the sector more, and staff would have the training to help them make re-insurance decisions on the front-line.
TransRe wanted to know as much as possible about renewables:
- Market size and scope;
- Where investors and governments are putting the most money into: wind, solar, batter, waves, direct air capture (DAC);
- Any supply-side or demand-side challenges (e.g., the speed of manufacturing solar panels);
- Countries and regions that are investing the most in renewables;
- Different technologies involved in renewables, particularly solar, and the subcategories of panel types;
- Environmental and operational risks of renewable projects that have failed;
- The risks associated with insuring renewable projects (e.g., turbines fail, solar panels get broken by hailstones);
And much more! TransRe tasked Dominic Tarn, Head of Client Services at Uncommon, with doing deep research into every aspect of the sector to turn this into reports for staff training.
- Making sense of re-insurance risk factors for renewables
Now, if you’re a world-leading underwriter, you want to make sure that whatever you are underwriting isn’t going to blow a hole in your risk portfolio.
In a company like TransRe, that’s a question for senior managers, actuaries, and underwriters. However, training reports like the ones we produced were useful knowledge touchpoints for a company wanting to understand a sector they were looking to get into.
This research helped TransRe answer the question: What are the risk factors, are they too high, or are they within acceptable ratios?
Hence why we were tasked with digging into failed projects (like the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, which cost $975 million to build in 2015, only to close in 2019), and the dangers of extreme weather conditions on solar projects.
- Need external support on a time-intensive project
A research project is time-intensive.
It takes academic-style investigative research, analysis, and the time to comprehend, consolidate, and clarify the information before it can be turned into a useful report.
In this case, it was a series of reports covering a number of sub-sectors within renewables: solar, wind, and waves. A second report was commissioned about solar, looking further into the risk factors associated with manufacturing and the types of panels.
Uncommon’s research expertise was a valuable asset on this project, and one that was put to good use for TransRe.
Process & Approach: How We Solved TransRe’s Problems
- Thorough research into the renewables sector
All four reports involved thorough research, making sure any claims made were backed up with more than one source, and verifying the reliability of the data being uncovered.
- Data analysis of insurance risk factors
Although insurance risk factors are questions for underwriters, TransRe wanted a general understanding of the risk factors in this market.
We dived into the figures and examples of damage, the need for repairs, and why projects fail to give them as clearer understanding of the risk factors as possible. This involved data analysis from multiple sources, and we presented these findings in the finished internal reports.
Project Outcomes for TransRe
- Several internal, training-based reports delivered
After a lot of work, the three core reports on solar, wind, and waves were finished, alongside the fourth on the risk factors associated with solar manufacturing and the types of panels.
All four reports were completed and designed to a high standard. There were a few rounds of edits, but even the first drafts were on target with the team’s expectations.
- Reports were turned into sales lead magnets
TransRe were so happy with the reports that they asked that they were turned into lead-generation assets.
This involved a customer-facing redesign, and reducing some of the more complex topics into clearer, shorter sections.
We also supported each B2B lead generation magnet with articles, LinkedIn posts, sales emails, and newsletters so that TransRe could make use of them in as many ways possible.
“We are delighted with the quality of the research reports Uncommon has created for us. At first, we intended for these to be internal training documents. However, as they’re such high-quality, we are using them in our marketing and sales funnels as thought-leadership and lead generation assets.”
“I highly recommend working with Dominic to create research, and sales assets.” James W, UK Head of Marketing, TransRe, a Berkshire Hathaway company.
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