LONDON (Reuters) - Bermuda-based insurer Lancashire Holdings is tapping into the growing market for renewable energy cover, it said yesterday.

The company said it has established a co-venture with renewable energy underwriting agency GCube, under which Lancashire will offer excess catastrophe cover on renewable energy risks brought by GCube.

Many renewable energy projects are being built in natural catastrophe zones, Lancashire said. "With governments around the world announcing increasingly ambitious targets for providing energy from renewable sources, the business in this sector can only grow over the coming years," said Lancashire chief executive Richard Brindle in a statement.

Shares in Lancashire, which listed in London in December 2005, were up 2.4 percent at 530.5 pence ($8.52) yesterday, having earlier touched an all-time high of 540 pence.