Bisnow / Jared Schenke
Amazon fulfillment center outside Atlanta.
Amazon's facilities faced at least half a dozen solar panel fires between early 2020 and mid-2021, CNBC reported, citing company documents obtained.
According to CNBC, Amazon suffered "critical fires or arcing" in six of its 47 North American solar installations, or 12.7 percent of those installations. As a result, the company temporarily shut down solar plants during repairs last year.
"The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable and above the industry average," wrote an Amazon employee in one of the internal reports available to the retailer.
Solar panel fires were once a bone of contention for large commercial structures. In 2019, following a series of solar panel fires on Walmart's rooftops, the company sued Tesla, claiming that at least seven of the rooftop fires were the result of the company's alleged improper installation of solar panels.
Walmart eventually filed the lawsuit in exchange for a settlement that kept more than 240 Tesla solar systems in retail stores. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The growth of e-commerce is driving the construction of taller industrial structures and taller buildings use more energy and the large roofs of these buildings can make them ideal places for solar energy systems to provide that energy.
Large buildings are disproportionately energy-intensive. Sorting buildings, distribution centers and other high-productivity facilities rely on computers and other devices to manage inventory and the flow of goods. All cars need electricity and a lot of it.
The US Energy Information Administration reported that in 2012, although less than 1% of buildings on all types of commercial properties were larger than 200,000 square feet, they accounted for about 26% of energy use in all commercial buildings.
About 11% of commercial buildings were between 25,000 and 200,000 square feet and accounted for about 42% of the total energy consumption of commercial buildings.
