Amazon’s attempt at building a green future has gone up in flames, literally. Because of fires, the e-commerce giant had to shut down all its buildings with solar-paneled rooftops last year. The solar panel initiative began in 2017, but the unacceptable frequency of electrical explosions and fires forced a pause to ensure proper installation and a design diagnostic before “re-energizing” the grid. Of course, the company blamed their third-party vendors and installations for the fiery episodes at their US-based warehouses (via CNBC):
On the afternoon of April 14, 2020, dozens of firefighters arrived at an Amazon
warehouse in Fresno, California, as thick plumes of smoke poured from the roof of the 880,000-square-foot warehouse.
Some 220 solar panels and other equipment at the facility, known as FAT1, were damaged by the three-alarm fire, which was caused by “an undetermined electrical event within the solar system mounted on top of the roof,” Leland Wilding, Fresno’s fire investigator, wrote in an incident report.
A little over a year later, about 60 firefighters were called to an even larger Amazon facility in Perryville, Maryland, to put out a two-alarm blaze, local news outlets reported.
In the intervening months, at least four other Amazon fulfillment centers caught fire or experienced electrical explosions due to failures with their solar energy-generating systems, according to internal company documents viewed by CNBC.
[…]
By June of last year, all of Amazon’s U.S. operations with solar had to be taken offline temporarily, internal documents show. The company had to ensure its systems were designed, installed and maintained properly before “re-energizing” any of them.
Amazon spokesperson Erika Howard told CNBC in a statement that the incidents involved systems run by partners, and that the company responded by voluntarily turning off its solar-powered roofs.
[…]
Amazon blamed third-party partners and vendors for the most significant problems uncovered by CEA and other teams working on facilities and sustainability initiatives.
“Over the past five years, solar malfunctions have been caused by improper installation techniques, improper commissioning of a new system, inadequate system maintenance and equipment malfunction,” the documents said.
Amazon teams working on facilities and sustainability initiatives devised a two-part plan to help prevent future breakdowns in the rooftop solar program.
Green energy is a scam and a haven for special favors to be handed down, especially among big donors of the Democratic Party. Solyndra has not been forgotten, and most items coveted by the Left on this front are exceedingly expensive. Only the wealthy can afford luxuries like solar paneling their home or buying an electric car, the latter of which still needs fossil fuels to charge the vehicles. Mr. Green liberal’s electric car is powered by coal. To add another layer of hilarity, in California, which is planning on banning gas-powered vehicles by 2035, you can’t even charge your car out of fear that it will overload the grid.
‘Buy an electric car but don’t charge it’ is the most liberal policy ever.