Amazon reportedly took all US solar rooftops offline last year after they caused at least six "critical fire or arc flash events" in warehouses between April 2020 and June 2021, affecting 12 per cent of such facilities.
“The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable and above industry averages,” an Amazon employee wrote in an internal report viewed by CNBC, which described the company's intention to ensure its systems were designed, installed and maintained properly before “re-energising” any of them.
The solar rooftop programme was launched in 2017, followed two years later by founder Jeff Bezos' Climate Pledge, promising the largest online retailer would zero out emissions by 2040. By April 2022, Amazon had onsite solar at 176 facilities, according to its website.
In Amazon’s 2021 sustainability report, released last month, the company claimed that 115 of its warehouses worldwide were being powered by rooftop solar installations...