A solar panel hangs on a wall near signage at the entrance to the new Tesla Inc. showroom in New York.
Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A US federal agency is considering a former Tesla employee’s complaint about how the company managed and communicated fire risks and defects in its solar installations as evidence.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission continues an investigation and also interviewed former Tesla employee who filed the complaint in spring 2019, Steven Henkes, who was then a Tesla Solar Field Quality Manager.
CNBC learned of the CPSC’s investigation to request a full copy of the whistleblower complaint. The agency declined to file the full complaint, but revealed, “The data we are withholding is an open investigation and consists of internal and external reports.” The exact scope and focus of the study are not known at this time.
Henkes is also suing Tesla for retaliation.
In a lawsuit filed in Alameda County in November 2020, Henkes said he was fired from Tesla on August 3, 2020, after raising concerns about safety internally and then filing formal complaints with government offices, when Tesla did not respond. communicating accurately with customers about what he said were unacceptable fire risks in the company’s solar installations.
Henkes declined to speak to CNBC directly, but answered some questions by email through his attorney, Robert Wallace. Henkes believes that “there is still a real threat of fires from serial failures in the Tesla facilities,” said Wallace. “Consumers are insufficiently informed about the risks.”
Tesla entered the solar industry in late 2016 when it acquired SolarCity for $ 2.6 billion. Tesla Energy installs photovoltaic solar energy on roofs, ground-based and carport solar energy systems, among other things.
Tesla doesn’t just derive income from solar energy. “Power Generation and Storage” accounted for only 6% of the company’s total revenue in 2020, but grew 30% from last year, according to the year-end financial statement. On January 27, Musk told analysts, “We are paying a lot of attention to solar energy and it is growing rapidly. So I don’t think it will be long before Tesla is by far the market leader in solar energy.”
Tesla’s systems have been installed in homes including military housing units in Fort Bliss and other bases, schools in LA’s unified school district, and commercial facilities including Walmart stores and Amazon warehouses.
As CNBC previously reported, Tesla solar installations have caught fire before. In August 2019, Walmart sued Tesla for negligence after solar roof systems installed by Tesla Energy were ignited at multiple Walmart locations.
In lawsuits, Walmart said Tesla failed to properly inspect, repair, and maintain these systems, even after the fires occurred. The fires caused significant damage and faulty systems posed serious risks to employees, customers and businesses, according to Walmart’s complaint.
On November 5, 2019, the companies issued a joint statement saying they looked forward to “a safe reactivation of our renewable energy systems.” The exact terms of the companies’ settlement – and the costs to Tesla – were never disclosed. A Walmart spokesperson pointed to a further statement in January 2020 that said, “Some of this work may include the replacement of certain solar energy equipment.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to Greg Sellers, CEO of a solar maintenance and repair company in Morgan Hill, California, the risk of fires is still very low in solar photovoltaics, whether in home or larger systems. Research by the Fraunhofer Institute for solar energy systems supports his observation from the field.
Without going into Tesla specifically, Sellers explained, “For those of us on the repair and safety side, every incident is too much. Fires are still very rare. That’s why they get as much publicity as they happen.” He said that in general, a fire is more likely to be caused by a failed installation practice than a component failure. And he said solar installers are getting better and better as these systems spread.
Concerns about public safety
CNBC asked the CPSC – a federal agency charged with “protecting consumers from products that pose fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazards” – for a copy of Henkes’ full complaint after it was referenced in its lawsuit. the fourth quarter of 2020..
Abioye Ella Mosheim, the CPSC’s Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer, declined, citing an exemption for documents related to an open investigation. She wrote, “The data you have requested is from the active investigation files of the CPSC police.”
Henkes confirmed through his attorney, Wallace, that the CPSC had interviewed Henkes and asked the former Tesla employee to submit additional material to the agency. The items Henkes submitted to the FBI in a “CP-15” complaint include:
Error analysis reports from a third engineering company
Internal minutes, reports and emails
Examples of customer reports
Photos of thermal events related to clients’ homes
Minutes and presentations from a supplier called Amphenol and Tesla
Henkes wants Tesla to “reconsider clarity with the customer,” his attorney said on his behalf. The former employee was in the process of implementing “a permanent countermeasure” to the problems he discovered before he was fired, the lawyer added. Henkes, however, claims he was “constantly thwarted and then fired for continuing to work for public safety” at the end of his tenure at Tesla.
Another former Tesla solar employee, who asked to remain unnamed because he still works in the solar industry, corroborated many of Henkes’ allegations from the public lawsuit.
In particular, this person said that many of Tesla’s solar system installations, particularly those including certain roof racks and Amphenol H4 connectors, pose a significant fire risk and Tesla’s remediation or modification efforts have not been transparent or effective. The person also said the company has still not repaired or removed all systems with known fire risks.
Tesla previously outsourced remediation efforts and maintenance of its obsolete solar fleet, but is now at least canceling some of those contracts and bringing the process back in-house, the former employee said.