Oil Company Fails to Uphold Warranties After Brief Foray Into 3rd World Solar Biz

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Let this serve as a caveat emptor for anyone considering buying solar from an oil company. The World Bank is being stiffed by Shell Oil for a measly few hundred thousand dollars to repair its shoddy solar panels left dangling in the developing world with no aftermarket servicing.

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Shell had briefly entered the solar business in a small green-washing effort, but exited with no plans for honoring its after-sales service and warranty replacements, which thus  damaged the same small local solar installation, maintenance and repair businesses it had earlier helped to create.

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What is worse:, these are the first solar arrays owned by the poorest of the poor in the Third World, and financed by the World Bank.

“They could only afford a system because they could get a loan from microfinance institutions or other banks. But now there are reports of thousands of Shell’s branded solar panels failing in the field and Shell seemingly is not replacing them.”

The World Bank is asking nicely:”I would like Shell to honour these commitments. We are not talking about millions of dollars here but hundreds of thousands.”

The first commenter at the Guardian story nails the real issue:

This is only a shock to people who are foolish enough to believe that Shell had the core competencies to run a solar company.

Hey, my British car just broke down. Where are those bastards from Burberry to fix it?

Image: Burberry at the Paris Shows

Source: The Guardian

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