The U.S. government is reportedly investigating the quality and safety of tesla‘s solar panels for triggering fire risks, as the U.S. pure tram company Tesla owns a rooftop solar power system business. It is reported that the government investigative agency recently decided to include as evidence in the investigation the circumstances reported by a former Tesla employee in a complaint about solar defects, and asked the person to provide more information.
The investigation is reportedly being conducted by the National Consumer Product Safety Council, a U.S. government agency. The commission has contacted Steven Henke, the former manager of Tesla’s solar business who filed the complaint and formal lawsuit against Tesla, for information. Henke was a “Solar Installation Site Quality Manager” at Tesla.
Henke reportedly became a “whistleblower” regarding the safety of Tesla’s solar products by filing a complaint with regulators in 2019.
In November 2020, Henkes filed a lawsuit against Tesla in an Alameda County, California, court, alleging that Tesla retaliated against him personally.
Henkes said he had raised solar product safety issues within the company and subsequently filed quality complaints with government agencies. He argued that there was an unacceptable risk of fire in the installation of the company’s solar products, but Tesla failed to address the problem or communicate with customers.
Emails provided by the attorney show that Henkes believed that a series of defects in Tesla’s solar installations posed a real risk of fire, but that consumers were not informed of these risks.
Enter solar power
Tesla’s main business has traditionally been purely electric cars as well as energy storage systems, and in 2016, the company made a controversial acquisition, spending $2.6 billion to buy U.S. solar manufacturer SolarCity, whose leader belonged to a relative of Musk’s. After that, Tesla began offering installation services for solar power systems for homes or businesses.
Tesla’s earnings report did not disclose the results of the solar business in detail. The company’s “solar power and energy storage” segment in its earnings report accounts for 6 percent of the company’s revenue in 2020, although it is growing at a rate of 30 percent.
At an earnings analyst meeting in January, Musk said the company is focusing more on the solar business, which is growing rapidly, and believes that soon Tesla will become the solar market leader.
Tesla’s solar system has already gained a large number of users, including Family homes on some U.S. Army bases, schools in some Los Angeles school districts, or commercial properties including Wal-Mart and Amazon.
Causing fires
Tesla solar systems have caused fires. in August 2019, Walmart sued Tesla, alleging problems with its solar products or installations that led to fires on Walmart’s rooftop power systems at several locations.
In the complaint, Walmart alleges that Tesla failed to carefully monitor, repair, and maintain these rooftop solar systems, even after the fires occurred. Walmart said the fires caused serious damage and that the systems with safety issues posed a serious risk to Walmart customers, employees and merchants.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Tesla and Walmart issued a statement to the public announcing a settlement of the fire lawsuit, although the specifics of the settlement agreement were not released to the public, particularly the financial losses caused to Tesla. A Walmart spokesperson said that some faulty power generation systems will be replaced.
Employee corroboration
The attorney confirmed that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had contacted Henkes and requested additional complaint materials. Previously, he submitted complaint materials that included a failure analysis by a third-party engineering team, internal meeting briefings, cases informed by consumers, and photos of temperature change events related to consumers’ homes.
Henkes said that because he continued to speak out for consumer safety, he experienced ostracism within Tesla and was eventually fired.
Another former Tesla Solar employee confirmed what Henkes presented in the public lawsuit.
This former employee stated that some roof rack assemblies and Amphenol H4 connectors posed a significant risk during Tesla Solar installations and that Tesla’s remedies were ineffective and not transparent. In addition, to date, Tesla has not helped customers to repair or remove solar systems that pose a risk of fire.
The former employee said that for some Time too old rooftop solar systems, Tesla often through outsourcing companies to repair or maintenance, but now Tesla has canceled some outsourcing contracts, and instead through the company’s own team to complete these tasks.
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