Tesla Working To Resolve Dispute With Walmart Over Solar Panel Fires (arstechnica.com) 22
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Walmart and Tesla are actively negotiating to resolve the lawsuit Walmart filed against Tesla earlier this week over defective solar panels, the two companies said in a joint statement sent out on Thursday evening. "Walmart and Tesla look forward to addressing all issues and re-energizing Tesla solar installations at Walmart stores, once all parties are certain that all concerns have been addressed," the statement said. The companies say they're both committed to a "sustainable energy future" as well as safety and efficiency. Spokespeople for Tesla and Walmart declined to provide any further details about the state of the negotiations, but it's not hard to guess what happened. The optics of Walmart suing Tesla over multiple fires on its store roofs were not good for Tesla. Tesla wants the public -- and potential customers -- to know that it's now working to address Walmart's concerns. Walmart filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Tesla accusing the company of supplying solar panels that were responsible for fires at about seven of its stores. "This is a breach of contract action arising from years of gross negligence and failure to live up to industry standards by Tesla with respect to solar panels that Tesla designed, installed, and promised to operate and maintain safely on the roofs of hundreds of Walmart stores," Walmart said in the court filing.
Sabotage! (Score:1)
Definitely sabotage. Who could it be though? The Illuminati? Small-time local power companies feeling threatened that the local Walmart rooftop generates more power than they can? Or maybe just some disgruntled Walmart employees that are bitter their favorite smoking spot is now off-limits?
Re: (Score:1)
Definitely sabotage. Who could it be though? The Illuminati? Small-time local power companies feeling threatened that the local Walmart rooftop generates more power than they can?
Since it happened at 7 different stores, I don't think it's some small time local power company. And I seriously doubt that all 7 of those roofs could generate as much power as any small power company anyhow. So it must be the Illuminati.
Or maybe just some disgruntled Walmart employees that are bitter their favorite smoking spot is now off-limits?
I think the Illuminati is a more likely culprit. Maybe the coal miner's union.
Re: (Score:2)
It's called the lowest tender. The more you rely on the lowest tender, the more likely you are to achieve system installation failures. Tesla want less installation failures, pay for inspectors who go out and inspect and check installations independently from the contractor who did the installation. The larger the installation, the effort taken to ensure the inspectors are independent from the lowest tender.
WTF? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You've never heard of an electrical fire?
You would have to be very creative to set silicon and metal on fire with 12 volts.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
The Tesla panels are so amazing they work at 500% efficiency - regular wiring has trouble keeping up. On top of that, whenever Musk’s plane flies within 200km of a Tesla solar panel installation, his personal aura boosts the panels effectiveness by another 5x.
So I t’s not the fact that there’s been a few fires that’s surprising... what’s surprising is that every Tesla solar installation hasn’t already spontaneously erupted into a glorious, enlightening conflagration by no
Re: (Score:2)
DC wiring is pretty scary over long distances. There used to be fires all over the place before folks switched over to AC power. Quite scandalous. Cooked elephant. Good reading.
Re: (Score:3)
DC wiring is pretty scary over long distances. There used to be fires all over the place before folks switched over to AC power. Quite scandalous. Cooked elephant. Good reading.
The elephant [wikipedia.org] was killed with AC, not DC.
Re: (Score:3)
I definitely recommend reading the section of that article titled "Association with Thomas Edison". Many people mistakenly believe that Topsy was killed as part of the "War of the Currents" as part of a ploy by Edison, when the reality is completely different.
Hopefully... (Score:1)
Really amazing how everyone simply quotes Walmart (Score:5, Informative)
"Hey, here's a legal case where two sides are both suing each other and have written documents damning the other. Let's only report one party's side!"
Here's Tesla's side. [wholemars.com] Brief summary:
* Every single installation passed inspection by local authorities and was certified by local utilities, and was installed and initially inspected based on a protocol agreed to by Walmart.
* These are not little rooftop solar installs; each is a vertiable solar farm. Collectively they've generated over 600 GWh of power. With any large amount of generating capacity, there always exists some fire risk, which is why insurance and liability are written into contracts; there are thousands of PV fires per year in the US alone.
* After there were several fires within a relatively short period (from different causes), Walmart requested deenergization of the systems. Tesla and Walmart agreed to deenergize them, and agreed on a protocol to reeinspect and recertify each site (a protocol based on advice from Walmart's own contractors), as well as providing root cause analyses.
* Tesla continued conducting the inspections and root cause analyses, but Walmart stonewalled them. Part of the delays were due to the fact that Walmart was busy stiffing their own contractor, so he couldn't work on the contract.
* Walmart refused to reengerize the systems that had been inspected as per their previous agreement, but instead tried to use the fact that Tesla loses money every day that the systems are off in order to try to get contract concessions out of them.
* One of the contract concessions that Walmart wanted was for Tesla to pay for all fires at Walmart stores. There is a fire once every several weeks at average at a Walmart.
* In preparing for a lawsuit to push Tesla to accede to their demands, they hired their own contractors to search out defects. Rather than giving Tesla a chance to fix anything they found, they kept them secret; Tesla only learned of them through the lawsuit.
Not mentioned: in arguing for the removal of the existing solar systems (e.g. voiding the contract with Tesla), Walmart would be able to have new solar systems installed on much cheaper (e.g. current) contract terms rather than their existing contract terms.
As a reminder, let's recall what the parties sued each other seeking:
Walmart: Seeking the removal of all solar systems and the voiding of the existing contract.
Tesla: Seeking the completion of inspection / recertification and reenergizing of the solar systems.
Settlement: The systems will complete inspection / recertification and be reenergized.
Question: Who won this legal dispute?
Followup: If Tesla won this legal dispute, why are Slashdot and almost everyone else only reporting Walmart's side?
Re:Really amazing how everyone simply quotes Walma (Score:4, Insightful)
So you wrote this:
> Tesla absolutely should pay for all fires started by or near their solar panel installations. If you're claiming WalMart demanded tesla pay for ALL fires regardless of cause, then you're a moron or Tesla leadership is full of morons. Even if there was such an ask, you wouldn't let it go uncountered.
But before you decided on the cause, you'd want to look at the failures, right? Oh, wait, you just argued against that:
"Tesla can't be trusted to do shit correctly, and giving them access to fix things would only result in them covering up their dangerous flaws, or worse, recertifying the same broken shit and starting more fires."
So which is it? You're arguing with yourself here. So either you're wrong or... you're wrong. Pick either one you want?
> Oh look, it's Musk's personal cock gobbler.
Oh, you're just trolling Rei, never mind then. Why did I even bother reading something from someone so toxic?
Anyhow, I won't treat either side's complaints/counter-complaints as true, let's wait to see what facts come out at trial. I'm in no rush to decide that either party is guilty here, and maybe both behaved badly? It's not an either/or kind of thing after all. I don't know if there was some serious design fault, or if small animals have been nesting in the panels and causing fires.
But I don't believe you do, either, because if you did, you'd probably have led with that evidence rather than your cock-based rebuttal.
How is this news? (Score:1)
The only thing that bothers me is why didn't Walmart just contact Tesla to start with? Why the lawsuit and the media shaming?
Solar panels safety? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Solar panels safety? (Score:2)