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Silent solar

Exposure to solar storm neither excluded nor affirmatively covered by property policies, on the silent-cyber model.

Definition

Silent solar denotes the implicit contractual treatment of geomagnetic-storm risk, almost never excluded by name from property policies yet almost never affirmatively covered either. The exposure lives in the silence of the wordings, unpriced and unreserved, surfacing only at the claim in a dispute over interpretation. Its peculiarity is that the real loss is an outage with no physical damage at the insured site, which is precisely what the cover is designed not to pay.

Example

Like silent cyber before it, silent solar calls for clarifying wordings before the event, since the three locks of physical damage, business interruption and supplier failure all work against the insured.

Related terms
Also known as

solaire silencieux