Amazon Secretly Shut Down All Its Solar Rooftops After They Started Catching Fire
futurism.com | September 3, 2022According to a CNBC investigation, retail giant Amazon — which made solar power a key pillar of its plan to reach zero emissions by 2040 — secretly switched off all rooftop warehouse solar panels amid multiple fires and safety concerns.
“Out of an abundance of caution, following a small number of isolated incidents with onsite solar systems owned and operated by third parties, Amazon proactively powered off our onsite solar installations in North America, and took immediate steps to re-inspect each installation by a leading solar technical expert firm,” an Amazon spokesperson conceded to CNBC in a statement.
The issue here isn’t necessarily that Amazon clearly had some faulty tech on their hands. And if equipment is catching fire and threatening employee safety — as AmazonBasics products have done before — it should definitely be powered down. But the company failed to make the malfunctions and the subsequent shut-downs known to the public, which means that the company was apparently withholding info about both employee safety and its environmental efforts and impact.
Internal documents obtained by CNBC showed that between April 2020 and June 2021, there were at least six separate incidents of rooftop solar panels either catching fire or suffering electrical explosions. Forty-seven North American Amazon warehouses had these panels installed, meaning the dangerous malfunctions impacted roughly 12.7 percent of all such sites.
“The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable,” an Amazon employee reportedly wrote in one internal report obtained by CNBC, “and above industry averages.”
But these incidents and the following string of shutdowns and evaluations remained undisclosed, even though the Amazon’s 2021 sustainability report — released long after those shutdowns and evaluations were underway — praised itself for its commitment to solar energy, domestically and beyond US borders.
The solution will be to stop issuing internal reports.
They need to put both Amazon Prime and Optimus Prime in the octagon and let them go at it, assuming said octagon is not some other Transformer to ensure a fair fight.
Apparently, Amazon Prime already has enough transformer problems, thank you….
The Sun God hates Jeff Bezos.
’nuff ced.
Alternative or Renewable or Sustainable, Energy is a fabrication and a fantasy.
We are using sustainable energy. It called Gas, diesel, natural gas and OIL.
Ling Ping..you have been summoned to CCP Headquarters. Your plan to burn 20% of Amazon so they would have to reorder stock failed and our country will see poor job numbers and inflation like the U.S.
..I will tell your wife Bing Bong you will be late for supper for next 20 years..
Here in Kansas they’re claiming the government will give you solar panels for your house AT NO COST TO YOU. Goes right along with the sentence “Don’t panic, were here from the government, we’ve come to help”. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.