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Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

reuters.com

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Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#61

Post by potiuper »

philipkglass wrote: post #26
grecy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little curious they wouldn't choose to buy panels from a company they own.... don't you think?

First Solar has acted as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm for large ground-mounted solar farms, but they have never been in the rooftop solar installation business like SolarCity. First Solar's panels would also be an unusual choice for a rooftop installation even if a different installer handled the work. Rooftop solar installations typically call for high efficiency panels. First Solar makes…

except catching any CdTe runoff in gutter traps

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#62

Post by GCA10 »

NetBeck wrote: post #33

>totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket losses, Walmart said in the lawsuit. This amount is immaterial for each party involved.

In terms of corporate Walmart, absolutely. But it's annoying as can be -- and even scary -- to employees at those stores. Customers too.

Walmart's real objective with a very public suit like this is to make sure that customers and employees see Tesla/Solar City as the villain. Not America's biggest retailer.

Even tight-fisted businesses get righteous about this kind of stuff. It's a great way to win the "we care" posturing game, at least for one day.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#63

Post by AndrewBissell »

Buried in the lawsuit is some entertaining commentary on Tesla's SolarCity acquisition:

"On information and belief, when Tesla purchased SolarCity to bail out the flailing company (whose executives included two of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's first cousins), Tesla failed to correct SolarCity's chaotic installation processes or to adopt adequate maintenance protocols, which would have been particularly important in light of the improper installation practices."

...

"On information and belief, SolarCity's business model was ultimately a bust."

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#64

Post by markrote »

perl4ever wrote: post #55
markrote wrote: post #8

The Walton Family also happens to own much of First Solar, a competing provider of photovoltaic cells.

Isn't the largest shareholder Vanguard, by far? My impression based on a cursory Googling is that Vanguard has about 130 million shares, whereas the largest individual shareholder, Jim Walton, only has about 10 million. In fact all of the top 10 shareholders of Walmart have more shares (>10M) than any of the Waltons, it appears: The Vanguard Group, Inc. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. BlackRock Fund Advisors Fidelity Man…

Lukas Walton owned 21% as of the start of the year, more than 3x Vanguard which owns 6.62%. I don't know about the rest of the Walton family - at one point the entire company was Walton owned - but that's nearly $1.5B owned by the company's "Significant Shareholder". I have no idea about the merits of this case but one should note that it's not uncommon for competing companies to sue each other.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#65

Post by ksherlock »

grecy wrote: post #22
camjohnson26 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Walton family collectively is worth over $150 billion, it’s not surprising they have exposure to a solar company somewhere in their vast fortune. If you’re implying that this lawsuit has no merit because of that investment that seems like an incredibly shaky accusation.

It's a little curious they wouldn't choose to buy panels from a company they own.... don't you think?

Blatant nepotism and self dealing might be normal at WeWork and Tesla but some companies do have better corporate governance.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#67

Post by cowsandmilk »

dredds wrote: post #44
reitzensteinm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So are you saying they staged seven fires, or that after 7 of 240 installations caught fire they only sued because of their conflicting interests? Tesla installed 29 MW of solar last quarter, compared to a peak of 253 MW at Solar City before the acquisition. First Solar, which isn't an apples to apples competitor since it specializes in utility scale, is on track to produce 1375 MW per quarter of panels this year. Te…

I wonder if Tesla moving into utility scale battery makes them a competitor or ally to solar. Both right?

I cannot see how it is anything other than ally. Biggest complaint about solar for utilities is that it needs some offset to match peaks. That is accomplished with batteries.

Generally, batteries compete with the power sources that can be turned on and off quickly with control to meet spiky demand. Solar doesn't produce power at the whims of the operators and is not in that category.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#68

Post by markrote »

csteubs wrote: post #36
reitzensteinm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So are you saying they staged seven fires, or that after 7 of 240 installations caught fire they only sued because of their conflicting interests? Tesla installed 29 MW of solar last quarter, compared to a peak of 253 MW at Solar City before the acquisition. First Solar, which isn't an apples to apples competitor since it specializes in utility scale, is on track to produce 1375 MW per quarter of panels this year. Te…

Talk about putting words in someone's mouth. The original comment merely points out an interesting note in that both parties have their own interest in solar. You make so many specific counter-claims to a simple sentence that it seems like you're responding to the wrong comment.

Csteubs is correct - there was no implication of foul play in the original post. Typically when there's an article about a business dispute like this, you would expect the article to include relevant information about overlapping business interests, so I added that for context.

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#69

Post by whamlastxmas »

ksherlock wrote: post #65
grecy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little curious they wouldn't choose to buy panels from a company they own.... don't you think?

Blatant nepotism and self dealing might be normal at WeWork and Tesla but some companies do have better corporate governance.

Yeah Walmart is really a bastion of moral integrity in corporate America

Re: Walmart sues Tesla over fires at stores fitted with its solar panels

#70

Post by oneepic »

navigatesol wrote: post #52

So many apologists on this site its hilarious. I guess Walmart is against climate change! https://twitter.com/sama/status/1130913917864034304?s=19 At won't point will you hear something that makes you doubt this company? Anything?

If you think everyone or even most people commenting on this site are pro-Tesla, I think you're not really reading HN. Either way, the Tesla debates I see are a whole lot like people debating over petty bs like celebrity news, so I usually stay out of them.
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