CHARLOTTE – Solar panel company Pink Energy, based in Mooresville, has announced another round of job cuts, with about 500 people being laid off. The company’s CEO blames faulty equipment from a supplier for the layoffs which now total some 1,000.
Pink Energy filed a federal lawsuit against the supplier, the publicly-traded company Generac, which produces a part known as SnapRS, an inline disconnect device that can shut down power rapidly to individual solar panels. It’s a mechanism required under the National Electric Code.
Pink Energy alleges that the part has an unacceptable failure rate, and that failure has resulted in melting or burning.
“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 in a statement on Monday.
No WARN Act notice has been filed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce regarding the layoffs.
The company’s statement approximates its current employee count at 1,000 though it also notes that the company previously laid off some 600 workers “earlier this year because of the same Generac product issues.”
Pink Energy is hiring 42 positions that would be based in North Carolina, according to its corporate careers webpage, and has more than 240 positions available nationally.
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