News: Energy

It took some time, but it appears that Tesla’s Solarglass Roof ramp is accelerating. Amidst Elon Musk’s recent tweets about the solar shingles on Twitter, the company has started making preparations that would allow it to expand its Solarglass Roof installations to more areas in California.

Recent job openings in Tesla’s Careers page indicate that the company is looking to hire Solarglass Roofers at an Open House from February 18th to the 21st at its office in Chatsworth, CA. The full-time position will require the applicant to join Tesla’s “Energy Field Operations team,” who are tasked with the installation of Tesla’s Solarglass tiles on residential homes in California. Following is the job description of the post on Tesla’s website.

“The Solarglass Roofer will be part of Tesla’s Energy Field Operations team. The ideal candidate will work cooperatively with other team members to successfully complete residential re-roofs and Solar Roof installations safely and on time. It is the responsibility of every Solarglass Roofer to ensure safe work practices for the team. New hire training and continued training will be provided.”

The Solarglass Roof is currently being installed in California’s San Francisco Bay Area for now. It seems that Tesla may be planning to expand its installation territories sooner rather than later as it is looking to hire a considerable workforce to assist in installing solar energy systems in the state.

California is not only the home of Tesla but also the home of a considerably large solar investment tax thanks to the state’s incentive programs. California homeowners who install solar energy systems on their homes receive a 26% tax credit toward the system’s purchase cost from January 1 to December 31, 2020. This incentive will drop 4% to 22% in 2021 and will eventually be abolished in 2023.

California boasts a large residential solar market. The state is home to over 1 million solar energy systems, some of them being from Tesla. While the company’s home state is currently the only place where the Solarglass Roof is available, Tesla plans to expand installations to the rest of the U.S. and Canada in the near future.

“The demand is very strong and we are working also not just through Tesla Solar Roof, but also through new homebuilders and through just the roofing industry in general, whether is in North America on the order of 4 million new roofs per year,” Elon Musk said during the 2019 Q4 earnings call.

Tesla rolled out a Solar Subscription program in August 2019 for those interested in renting the company’s energy systems. It allowed customers to utilize solar energy for a reduced cost and no long-term contract.

The ramp of Tesla’s solar energy team will allow for more installations as the company aims to widen its region of where solar is available. The growth of the energy portion of Tesla will increase the company’s impact on sustainability, letting people get power from the sun in a clean and environmentally friendly way.

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Tesla will be holding a “company talk” in April from its  Giga New York location where the company manufactures its Solarglass Roof tile and energy products from. Elon Musk took to Twitter on Monday to share initial details about the upcoming Gigafactory New York event, noting that there will also be factory tours for customers and the media.

News of Tesla’s April company talk comes on the heels of a series of tweets by Musk that revealed the ramping up of solar tile roof installations in the San Francisco Bay area and eventual plans to roll out Tesla solar products to Europe and China.

Tesla April company talk will be from our Giga New York factory, where we make SolarGlass & several other products. Will also offer customer & media tours.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2020

The month of April happens to be the same timeframe as Tesla “Battery Day” which Elon Musk mentioned during the recent earnings call.

“…we’re going to talk about this in Battery Day, which is probably April. And then a lot of these questions will be answered. I think it’s going to be a very compelling story that we have to present. I think it’s going to actually blow people’s minds. It blows my mind, and I know it. So it’s going to be pretty cool,” Musk said.

Tesla produces it’s solar roof tiles, branded as Solarglass Roof, at the Buffalo, New York factory. The Solarglass looks like a contemporary roof tile but with nearly indestructible properties and acts “alive” by generating power through the sun. Tesla’s third-generation Solar Glass roof tile is simpler and faster to install than previous iterations. The company has a goal to manufacture approximately 1000 solar roofs per week, and will focus customer installations on California before expanding to the rest of the United States and eventually to overseas markets.

I was pleasantly surprised by my recent visit to the Tesla plant. It was encouraging to see Solar roofs, batteries, and charging stations being built in the facility. Tesla reports over 1100 workers at the plant and they say they will hit 1460 by the April deadline. pic.twitter.com/33aSuRdQLC

— Assemblyman Sean Ryan (@SeanMRyan149) February 8, 2020

A recent interview with New York Assembly member Sean Ryan with WBEN hinted that Tesla has also been producing batteries at Giga New York aside from its solar roofs and charging stations. Tesla has been tight-lipped about the production in the Buffalo facility but Ryan was pleased when he toured the factory last Friday.

“The factory is built out. It has complete lines running, product moving around, people are there, so it’s really transformed itself into what we’ve been hoping for. We’ve been holding our breath since we put that big bet down on Tesla. They had a slow start, and I was worried as we’re approaching this spring they were going to hit their deadlines, but they’re right on track,” he said.

Tesla has also reportedly been hiring hundreds of employees for its Buffalo facility in a bid to ramp up production at Giga New York and increase focus on its solar business. The company deployed 54 MW in the last quarter of 2019 or about a 25 percent jump from Q3’s 43 MW deployment. Tesla is looking to deploy at least 260 MW of solar energy systems this year, or a 50 percent increase over the 173 MW systems deployed in 2019.

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As the cost of installing solar drops in the United States by as much as 70% in the last decade, more and more homeowners in the US are considering a switch to greener energy. At the forefront of Tesla’s push into residential solar is its flagship Solarglass roof, which are essentially solar cells that look like standard roofing tiles. Yet, inasmuch as Tesla’s Solarglass tiles have caught numerous headlines in the past, many questions about the product, such as its durability, installation process, and real cost, remain.

Los Angeles, California-based Austin Flack is one of the first consumers to get a Tesla Solarglass Roof. In a recent video shared on YouTube, Flack decided to share his first impressions about his Tesla Solarglass experience.

“We placed our order in early November and were scheduled for installation in mid-December, but rainy weather pushed installation into January. Unfortunately, the federal rebate fell from 30% in 2019 to 26% in 2020, but Telsa was kind enough to give us a 4% discount to make up the difference,” Flack wrote on the description of his review on YouTube.

COST OF TESLA SOLARGLASS ROOF

Prior to the announcement of Tesla about the latest version of the company’s flagship solar product in October 2019, Flack and his wife thought of getting Tesla solar panels but they discovered that their roof, which measures 1,745 sq.ft., wasn’t properly designed and installed.

The couple decided to compare the cost of getting a new composite roof plus the Tesla solar panel array they need. Estimates for the composite tile roof ranged roughly between $9,000 and $12,000. Meanwhile, Tesla calculated that their Los Angeles home would need a system size of around 9.087 kW with some room for energy needs to grow. The quote from Tesla for the Solarglass Roof is $33,749 after rebates. This price is about $3,000 more expensive than the cost of getting a composite tile roof with the equivalent solar panel array setup.

According to Flack, they went for the Solarglass Roof and found the price reasonable “given the enhanced aesthetics of solar glass and how much value it might add to our home.”

SOLARGLASS ROOF INSTALLATION

Installation of the Solarglass Roof started on Jan. 6 and took 7 days including removal of the old roof, installation of Solarglass tiles, replacement of other roofing elements, and hardware setup.

Flack shared that their new roof is mostly solar tiles with some dummy tiles for the edges and to fit near the vents and pipes. The roof was also raised by about 1.5 inches to have some space for wiring and ventilation.

From the solar tiles, Tesla neatly installed conduit boxes in their attic and directed the power to a DC inverter, shutoff switches, and 200 amp electrical box.

The couple is still waiting for the final approval to turn on the system and promised to post an update video once it’s online.

“For now, we are very happy with the Solar Glass. It’s beautiful. It’s durable. It’s guaranteed for 25 years, and when fully operational it will completely zero out our electrical bill,” Flack said.

TESLA SOLAR ENERGY BUSINESS WILL SHINE IN 2020

Tesla’s solar business had its moments under the cloud and seemingly losing its shine amid rising competition from smaller solar roof installers and lower subsidies for solar panels. With the solar business’ back on the wall, Elon Musk re-aligned and reignited Tesla’s solar push with the promise to ramp up production and aim to install more solar roofs compared to previous years. Musk showed a more cautious side and for most, that was a good thing.

“In the long term, I expect Tesla Energy to be of the same or roughly the same size as Tesla’s automotive sector or business. This is the most underappreciated group. I think it could be bigger, but it’s certainly of a similar magnitude to Tesla Solar. Meaning, if you take Tesla Solar plus battery stuff, Tesla Energy is, I think, the least appreciated element,” Musk said.

At present, Tesla offers $250-incentive for new customers and for people who will refer other buyers.

In December, Tesla also installed canopies for their solar test houses in its Fremont factory, reminiscent of how it used big tents to solve Model 3 production issues. During the same period, Tesla looked to hire more installers to beef up its teams in California, Texas, Nevada, and Florida. In Q3 of 2019, the company deployed about 43MW of solar, about 48% more compared to Q3.

Check out Austin Flack’s first impression of the Tesla Solarglass Roof below:

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Tesla is set to activate a massive 25 MW Powerpack battery farm that will support Infigen’s 278.5 MW Lake Bonney Wind Farm in South Australia. Tesla’s utility-scale battery storage system will help Infigen Energy provide reliable electricity to households and businesses while lowering South Australia’s emissions footprint. Currently, the Lake Bonney Wind Farm already generates electricity enough for 110,000 homes or about 14 percent of the population in South Australia, the state with the highest level of renewable energy production in the country.

“Lake Bonney allows us to grow the volume of renewable energy we sell to commercial and industrial customers. We are pleased to be partnering with South Australian customers, communities and governments as we lead Australia’s transition to a clean energy future,” said Infigen’s Executive Director, Finance and Commercial Sylvia Wiggins.

The newest Tesla big battery in Australia was energezied last October and has been operating at full capacity since November 2019 but is going through a final testing phase. The Powerpack will store energy during times of high wind output and this energy can be dispatched during times of peak demand to save the market from high prices. Likewise, the Tesla battery in Lake Bonny can store as much 52 MWh of electricity that can be tapped even when the wind doesn’t blow.

Tesla’s participation in the renewable energy sector of South Australia will help push the state to a net 100 percent renewable energy in the 2030s. Aside from that, it will also help boost energy competition and make power more secure for businesses in South Australia.  The Lake Bonney Battery Energy system is a $38 million project with a $5 million grant from the state government and another $5 million support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

“Assets such as the Lake Bonney Wind Farm and Battery provide reliable, affordable and renewable electricity to this state’s commercial and industrial customers. It will allow South Australia to incorporate more renewable energy into the system and move towards net-100% renewable energy in the 2030s,” said South Australia’s Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

Tesla Powerpack is also used by Paris-based renewable energy company Neoen whose Hornsdale Wind Farm in South Australia is set to get larger by 50 percent, making it the world’s largest lithium-ion battery.

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Tesla is now offering a $250 award to new solar customers who purchase or subscribe to a solar panel system through the company’s referral program. The $250 incentive will also apply to anyone who refers a buyer through a referral link.

“Our goal is to build the best clean energy products and help Tesla owners share their excitement and experiences with others,” Tesla says in its updated referral program page.

For referring customers and their referrals to receive the $250 award, they must place their orders via Design Studio using the referrer’s unique referral link. The award is only applicable to orders placed on or after Oct. 1, 2019.

The referral cannot be credited after the order has been placed or at the time of product delivery. Customers will receive their awards after the solar panel system has been installed and activated.
Tesla’s referral program for solar only includes purchases and subscriptions of its solar panels. At the moment, it does not cover purchases of the Powerwall, Powerpack, or the new Solarglass.

Tesla offers $250 incentive for Solar panel installations (Credit: Teslarati)

Tesla Solar: Should you buy or subscribe?

Tesla offers a range of options for solar panel customers, depending on the needs and budget of the homeowner.

Buying a solar panel system allows you to choose from a range of four sizes. A small system is most suitable for 1,000 to 2,000-square-foot homes with an average electric bill of $90 to $110 per month. It can generate up to around 14 to 19 kWh per day.

On the other end of the spectrum, a large solar panel system produces an average of 58 to 77 kWh per day. It is best suited for large homes around 4,000 square feet. The price range for buying a solar panel system starts at $7,770 for the small system to $27,750 for the extra-large. This includes installation costs and federal tax incentives.

Homeowners can also opt for subscription solar, which makes it cheaper and easier to make the switch to sustainable energy. Tesla’s one-click subscription program is currently available in six states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

Small solar panel systems in all states except for California are available for $50 per month, medium for $100 per month, and large for $150 per month. California users are charged higher fees of $65, $130, and $195 for small, medium, and large systems respectively. All subscription rates also include installation costs.

Canceling a subscription does not come with a cancellation fee, although Tesla charges a removal fee to cover the cost of removing the panels.

Tesla subscription solar panel systems are available for as low as $50 per month.

Tesla ramps up Solarglass production

The renewed focus on its solar product follows news of Tesla firing up its production of Solarglass, which Musk unveiled in October last year. The company’s new flagship solar product boasts increased power density, easy installation, better durability, and a lower cost per watt compared to conventional solar panels.

Yes, you can walk on the Tesla Solarglass roof. In stilettos, if you want 😉 https://t.co/6wwKJqmPdr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2019

Musk previously announced that Tesla is “spooling up its production line rapidly” in hopes of building 1,000 solar roofs per week by the end of 2019.

The company has yet to make a report of its production numbers in its upcoming Q4 2019 earnings call set for Jan. 29. However, according to its third-quarter report, Tesla managed to deploy 43 MW of solar products, down from 93 MW during the same quarter of the previous year, but 43 percent higher than the number of installations in the quarter prior.

News of Tesla ramping up its solar panel production sparked in April last year, as Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, NY began hiring for at least three dozen job openings. In August of the same year, Tesla obtained a building permit to build a new testing facility for its solar panels in Fremont, CA.

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Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant project in South Australia is only around ~2% complete, but it is already proving to be a difference-maker, rescuing Queensland’s grid during an unexpected power outage. The response time and efficiency of the Virtual Power Plant mirror that of Tesla’s other large-scale energy project in the region, the highly-acclaimed Hornsdale Power Reserve. 

Back in October, Queensland’s Kogan Creek coal power station, one of the largest in the region, tripped and caused the power system to drop well below the normal level of system frequency. Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant promptly stepped in, detecting the frequency drop and injecting power into the grid from Powerwall batteries loaded with energy from solar panels installed in SA Housing Trust properties across the state. 

In a statement about the VPP’s feat, South Australia Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan highlighted the fact that Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant is still in its early days. Despite this, it was able to respond quickly. The feat was no joke, considering that the Kogan Creek station is a fairly large coal power plant. “Although the Virtual Power Plant is in its early days, it is already demonstrating how it can provide the network support traditionally performed by large conventional generators,” he said. 

The Energy Minister’s statement is notable, considering that there are only about 900 homes forming the Virtual Power Plant as of date. Tesla’s target for the full VPP is a whopping 50,000 solar-powered, Powerwall-equipped homes. If less than 2% of the planned Virtual Power Plant can already rescue Queensland’s grid when a large coal plant fails, one can only imagine how much stability a fully-completed VPP could accomplish. 

Violette Mouchaileh, the executive general manager of emerging markets and services for the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), expressed her optimism about the potential of Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant. “The SA VPP has proven the aggregation of distributed energy resources can benefit the power system and participating consumers. The opportunity for VPPs to reach a large scale will benefit all energy users through added competition to deliver services at reducing prices. We encourage more VPPS to register to accelerate the shared learning on how to safely and efficiently integrate, operate and regulate these emerging technologies into the NEM,” she said.

The buildout of Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant in South Australia is expected to be completed in three phases. In Phase 1, energy systems will be delivered to 100 SA Housing properties. Phase 2 increases this number with an additional 1,000 homes equipped with solar panels and Powerwall batteries. Phase 3, provided that it does push through, would expand the system to 50,000 homes. So far, Phase 1 has been completed, and Phase 2 appears to be nearing completion as well. 

Once complete, Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant in South Australia will deliver 250MW of solar energy and store 650 MWh of backup energy for the region. That’s notably larger than the Hornsdale Power Reserve, which is already changing South Australia’s energy landscape with its 100MW/129MWh capacity. In a way, Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant may prove to be a dark horse for the company’s Energy Business, which is unfortunately underestimated most of the time. Couple this with the 50% expansion of the Hornsdale Power Reserve, and Tesla Energy might very well be poised to surprise in the coming quarters.

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Tesla’s Powerwall 2 batteries are helping Zimbabwe change the landscape of its local telecom networks. 

Zimbabwe is a country that usually faces a shortage of physical cash. With this in mind, the southern African country has widely embraced digital financial transaction systems, a notable part of which is conducted through mobile devices. Unfortunately, the country also is prone to power outages, with some lasting as long as 18 hours per day.  

During outages, base stations of telecom providers stop operating, and those that do usually rely on dirty diesel generators to keep the structures active. The system works, but fuel is scarce in Zimbabwe as well. Norman Moyo, the chief executive officer of Distributed Power Africa, describes the situation in the country in a statement to Bloomberg. 

“Telecommunications have become the lifeblood of the economy. If the telecom network is down in Zimbabwe, you can’t do any transactions,” he said. 

Econet Wireless Ltd., one of Zimbabwe’s mobile providers and the company behind EcoCash, one of the country’s most popular mobile money systems, opted to adopt a less conventional approach to respond to the country’s power problems. Instead of relying on an unstable grid and diesel generators, Econet opted to utilize Tesla’s Powerwall 2 batteries to power its base stations. 

The project is notable, with the initiative involving the installation of two Powerwalls for each base station. The entire project involves the installation of 520 Powerwalls, is Tesla’s most extensive telecommunications initiative to date, according to Moyo. Considering that Econet has about 1,300 base stations across Zimbabwe, there is a good chance that Tesla’s 520 Powerwalls will only prove to be the beginning. 

Moyo, whose company handles the installation of the Tesla batteries, noted that if the Zimbabwe project proves successful, similar models could be adopted in other areas too. Among these are regions such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, both of which are also experiencing power shortages. 

Econet notes that the Powerwall 2 batteries are designed to step in at times when the base station’s solar panels are not generating enough electricity. Each pair of Tesla Powerwalls could power a base station for as long as 10 hours on their own, according to the telecom provider. 

Commenting on the project, a Tesla spokesperson has noted that the company is currently working with several telecommunications companies across the world. The Silicon Valley-based company added that it sees a combination of solar panels and battery storage devices as a good opportunity to expand its business and reach in regions where electricity supply is limited, or at best, erratic.

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Tesla’s internships for high school graduates at Gigafactory 1 in Sparks, Nevada have been well received due to their mutual benefits for both the company and participants. In Tesla’s Manufacturing Development Program, for instance, students develop skills for gainful employment in a future-minded industry while earning educational credits from a local community college, and Tesla gains a potential source for a ready-trained workforce enthusiastic about its mission. These programs also have the benefit of helping Tesla educate the greater community about its overall mission.

At the recent Social Innovation Summit in Los Angeles, entrepreneur consultant Jessica Albo spoke with Chris Reilly, Tesla’s lead workforce development and education, about how the company’s educational programs provide a direct link to supporting their long-term goals. “When we think about workforce development, we think about it through the same lens as [our sustainability] mission,” Reilly explained. “We need to build pipelines that are authentic within our communities at a local level.”

Reilly also detailed how Tesla has many active programs across different areas of their business to develop these pipelines, and how reaching out to schools and school districts has provided an incredible opportunity to do that. “We’ve had over 3,000 students, teachers and educators through Gigafactory over the past few years, just to look at what type of work is going on there and to better understand Tesla’s mission.”

Tesla’s Manufacturing Development Program is now in its third year after prior years proved successful and valuable for all parties involved. There isn’t an employment guarantee at the end of the program, but the mutual benefits gained make the opportunity a win-win. “The thought was: As we grow from a small team out in Northern Nevada to thousands of employees, how do we build sustainable pipelines,” Reilly explained to a local reporter during an informational session hosted at Las Vegas High School in January.

In addition to the high school program, Tesla has pledged to donate $37.5 million dollars to Nevada schools as part of a Gigafactory Incentive Deal. An initial grant of $1.5 million for K-12 programs went out last summer to FIRST Nevada, a robotics and STEAM-focused non-profit, and the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, among other technology-focused educational efforts. In early 2018, Gigafactory 1 hosted local 6th grade students for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, an initiative aiming to foster and support the interest of young women in the engineering field.

On the heels of Walmart’s recent lawsuit against Tesla Energy laying claim to 7 fires allegedly caused by Tesla’s solar panel installations, Amazon has now claimed that it also experienced a fire in June 2018 with the same company as culprit. The online retailer has also indicated that it has taken steps to mitigate future issues and that no further projects are planned using Tesla solar panels.

A Tesla spokesperson has provided a statement about Amazon’s claims, stating that necessary steps have been taken to ensure that the e-commerce giant’s remaining Tesla solar installations are functioning as safe and reliably as possible. The representative also noted that the fire reported by Amazon was an isolated incident.

“All 11 Amazon sites with solar from Tesla are generating energy and are proactively monitored and maintained. Last year, there was an isolated event that occurred in an inverter at one of the Amazon sites. Tesla worked collaboratively with Amazon to root cause the event and remediate. We also performed inspections at the other sites, which confirmed the integrity of the systems. As with all of our commercial solar installations, we continue to proactively monitor the systems to ensure they operate safely and reliably,” Tesla noted.

Amazon, for its part, has not issued a response to Tesla’s statement as of writing.

Tesla’s statement about Amazon’s solar fire report comes as the company’s litigation with Walmart remains ongoing. A joint statement was put forth by the companies since the initial Complaint was filed, indicating their desire to find a resolution.

“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. Together, we look forward to pursuing our mutual goal of a sustainable energy future. Above all else, both companies want each and every system to operate reliably, efficiently, and safely,” the two companies wrote.

Given the heated nature of both Tesla’s and Walmart’s positions on the issues, the joint statement may not have much real-world effect; however, neither party likely wants all of their internal issues deliberated in a litigated public forum. For instance, the deposition phase may reveal Walmart is quite negligent in their rooftop maintenance and had more of a financial interest in breaking its contract with Tesla than repairing the issues representing a miniscule percentage of its solar installations.

Other activities related to the solar panel fires look as though they may be related to Tesla’s “Project Titan” undertaking wherein 1% of third-party parts were found to have exhibited abnormal behavior. A Tesla representative explained that Tesla’s software-monitoring applications found that a small number of Amphenol H4 connectors experienced failures and disconnections higher than their standards allowed. Since the connectors regulate the flow of energy and heat to the solar panels, failures from this part can lead to overheating and fires.

“A portion of SolarCity-installed modules and optimizers from various manufacturers were made with H4 connectors from Amphenol, a part that was commonly used across the industry at the time,” the Tesla representative was quoted as saying. Project Titan’s primary objective was to refurbish or replace this part with MC4 connectors as a remediation effort to preemptively address potential issues. As of April 2019, Project Titan was still underway.

After a wake of headlines quick to paint Tesla Energy as an irresponsible solar power company proliferated, it appears there’s more to the story of Walmart’s lawsuit against the all-electric car maker, particularly with regard to Tesla’s attempts to resolve the issues involved. A joint statement released this morning indicates the two parties will be working together to resolve their legal disputes amicably; however, after further review of the parties’ case history and Walmart’s conduct throughout, their statement seems to merely reiterate a problem that has been unresolved since the start of the two companies’ problems with one another.

Walmart and Tesla Joint Statement

“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.”

Tesla’s solar installations currently occupy 248 Walmart locations across the United States, and seven have been the subject of roof fires: One each in 2012, 2016, and 2017; three between March and May of 2018; and one in November 2018. Walmart’s lawsuit involving these instances claims serious negligence and makes damning assertions against Tesla, as to be expected by the plaintiff any lawsuit. Their claims against Tesla include, among many things, that millions of damages have resulted from the fires, that their private inspections of the solar systems reveal widespread negligence and shoddy installations, and that Tesla has refused to provide them with a final ‘root cause’ of the fires.

Seven fires are certainly a cause for concern, and Walmart is justified in some of its remediation requests from Tesla as a result: All of the systems were de-energized while inspections were ongoing, for one, and Tesla agreed to pay for the damages resulting from the fires. From Tesla’s own inspections, there were definitely issues with whichever employees – Tesla’s directly or contractors – were in charge of the installations and maintenance which, unfortunately, did not receive the attention they needed until after major events occurred.

A joint statement from Tesla & Walmart. Looking forward to see some positive outcome. $TSLA #Tesla #Walmart https://t.co/Bq1HIVTlb4 pic.twitter.com/R360RnsORw

— Vincent (@vincent13031925) August 23, 2019

However, what’s been left out of the discussion about Walmart’s lawsuit is the role Tesla played throughout the two companies’ ongoing efforts to resolve the issues and Walmart’s lack of willingness to cooperate even after agreeing to certain remediations. Exhibit 249 of the suit, containing a letter from Tesla’s legal counselors to their Walmart counterparts written on July 29, 2019, indicate that even after both Tesla’s and Walmart’s independent inspections of several sites determined their safety and suitability for re-energizing, Walmart still would not agree to return them to service. Instead, Walmart demanded that all of their solar agreements be amended to make Tesla liable for issues that could, for example, be the fault of Walmart’s own negligence or misconduct. If Tesla did not agree to the ‘take it or leave it’ agreement, Walmart would prevent Tesla from re-energizing any of the systems in their previously signed contracts.

Further written in Tesla’s letter was the detailed recount of how ongoing negotiations were continuously stalled by Walmart, how further inspections continued alongside Walmart’s independent inspectors, and how dozens of sites were approved for re-energizing, all without Walmart budging on its position that Tesla accept its terms ‘or else.’ At one point, Tesla wasn’t able to review Walmart’s inspector’s reviews because the company had stopped paying their salary and thus both the inspector and Walmart were ‘unable to release them’ to Tesla. As a final note, although not the final conclusion made in Tesla’s letter, was that at no point did Walmart ask Tesla for a ‘root cause’ of the original fires which prompted the entire issue to begin with. Further, Walmart’s inspectors had provided their final conclusions, though they were not shared with Tesla.

Here are two quotes from the letter expressing Tesla’s frustration with the process:

“My client has had enough. Walmart cannot negotiate (and renegotiate) a protocol for inspection; then try to impose new, extra-contractual conditions on the exercise of Tesla’s contractual rights; then invite negotiation over those improper, unreasonable conditions; and then refuse to negotiate. Walmart has unfortunately wasted time and diverted resources while undermining the goodwill that Tesla had sought to preserve throughout this process.” (p. 8)

“We also disagree with Walmart’s contention that its consultants have ‘confirm[ed] Tesla’s systemic, widespread breaches and negligence.’ The parties’ Agreements anticipate that the systems will require periodic maintenance and repair in a manner that is entirely customary within the solar power industry. The fact that some sites in fact need maintenance and repair – especially sites that have been idle for a year now – is neither surprising nor a breach of any Agreement. The fact that thorough, comprehensive inspections have identified areas for improvement and opportunities for error correction is equally unsurprising. Tesla welcomes the chance to improve its processes, tools, and monitoring, but that too is not evidence of any breach.” (pp. 11-12)

From reviewing both the lawsuit and Tesla’s letter addressing it, it seems that at the core of Walmart’s litigation is the desire to a) break its financial ties with Tesla, which included paying Tesla for the power its solar systems generated; b) recover the damages the fires caused to Walmart’s stores, which Tesla already agreed to; and c) force Tesla to remove all of its solar installations rather than allow for previously agreed to repairs and stringent inspections involving private consultants of Walmart’s choosing.

There are certainly instances where Tesla needed to take action in these cases, and it appears they have and are continually willing to do so under very stringent and expensive conditions. It is hard, though, to see where Walmart’s reaction isn’t overblown considering the risks of anything involving electrical installations or in industry in general. Tesla’s letter cited ten instances of Walmart fires that were completely unrelated to their solar installations to make this point.

Whatever Walmart’s intentions, there is a message forming for any future would-be solar power companies wanting to do business with the enterprise in the future: Beware. If the opportunity to renege on an agreement comes up, no matter how willing the other party is to cooperate, Walmart money and power will decide the new terms no matter what.

Read Tesla’s notice of breach of contract to Walmart below.

Walmart Inc v Tesla Energy … by Simon Alvarez on Scribd