Pink Energy Forced to Lay Off 500 More Employees as Result of Faulty Generac Solar Equipment

Solar Company CEO Jayson Waller Continues Push for Generac to Issue National Recall

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid rampant consumer discontent resulting from faulty Generac solar equipment, Pink Energy has been forced to lay off approximately 500 people today, in addition to the approximately 600 cuts the business already made earlier this year because of the same Generac product issues.

The cuts stem from the fallout of a Generac part called a SnapRS, an inline disconnect device designed to rapidly shut down power to individual solar panels as required by the National Electric Code. Pink Energy filed a federal lawsuit against Generac in August as a result of thousands of failures of these parts, which have been found to melt/burn at customer homes. SnapRS units, which have been part of nearly every Pink Energy solar energy equipment installation since 2020, are believed to have caused at least two fires at Pink Energy customer homes.

According to Pink Energy's lawsuit, as recently as June 2022, Generac has acknowledged a more than 40% failure rate in the SnapRS units but has not issued a national recall for the part. The faulty part is affecting the solar production at the homes of thousands of Pink Energy customers, making many upset that they were oversold when purchasing their solar system.

Generac assured Pink Energy in August 2021 that a firmware update would fix the issue of overactive SnapRS turning on and off repeatedly. Instead, the firmware update actually shut down portions of customer systems to prevent potential thermal events. According to its lawsuit, Pink Energy has reason to believe Generac was aware that its firmware update would have significant adverse effects on the production of customer solar systems, but its CEO, Aaron Jagdfeld, did not disclose until 10 months later to Pink Energy (June 2022) that the firmware update was only an "interim solution" until a third-generation SnapRS part arrived.

"We trusted Generac because of its status as a publicly traded company to be honest and open about its firmware update being a permanent fix, and it was not. That's led to thousands of unhappy customers and crippled all parts of our business, leading to our layoffs," Pink Energy CEO Jayson Waller said. "We need Generac to take responsibility for these failing parts by issuing a national recall. It's not just our business that's having issues with Generac solar products, other solar installation companies have advised us that they are experiencing these same issues. Generac seems more interested in protecting its stock price than taking accountability for equipment failures."

Generac's faulty equipment has caused Pink Energy to experience an influx of 30,000 inbound customer calls per month, many times higher than its historical level of only 800 calls per month. It continues to field calls and address issues related to the SnapRS and is even seeing failures in other Generac component pieces. In having replaced approximately 50,000 SnapRS itself, Pink Energy has terminated its relationship with Generac and prevailed upon the company to take over responsibility for all future services related to Generac products, including replacement of SnapRS components and clearing lockout errors, in order to streamline the resolution of issues for Pink Energy customers.

There is now a dedicated phone line for customers to directly reach Generac to address these Generac product issues. Generac can be reached at 800-396-1281, or by emailing solarsupport@generac.com, to get Generac product system issues addressed.

"In hearing from customers, early returns of Generac's assumption of service related to its issues are upsetting," Waller said. "In addition to customers having to reach out to service providers and schedule service appointments on their own, customers are being charged for this service, which Generac promised would not happen." 

Pink Energy customers experiencing any other issues or have questions unrelated to their Generac products can still reach the Pink Energy team at 833-423-1132, or by email at customer@gopink.com, or by visiting a Facebook group called Pink Cares, specifically designed to help customers needing extra assistance.

Pink Energy is a leading energy efficiency company that provides high-quality American-made solar panels as part of a complete energy-savings package for residential customers. The company has made the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies five times in the last six years and has won dozens of company awards. Pink Energy launched in 2014 in Mooresville, N.C., and today has approximately 1,000 employees, including a commercial division. It is committed to doing good things for the planet and good things for people by helping them to live lives powered by the sun. For more information, visit https://gopink.com or follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Roger Kuznia 
rkuznia@gopink.com
704-622-6038

SOURCE Pink Energy