While photovoltaics (PV) play an increasingly central role in Europe’s clean energy transition and energy independence, a hidden vulnerability threatens this progress: the software-based remote access to inverters, the critical “brains” of any PV system.

“Today, over 200 GW of European PV capacity is already linked to inverters manufactured in China – the equivalent of more than 200 nuclear power plants,” said Christoph Podewils, the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) Secretary General.

“This means Europe has effectively surrendered remote control of a vast portion of its electricity infrastructure.”

[…]

Further concerns include:

• 70% of all inverters installed in 2023 came from Chinese vendors, mainly Huawei and SunGrow.
• These two companies alone already control remote access to 168 GW of PV capacity in Europe (DNV Report, p. 40), by 2030, this figure is projected to exceed 400 GW – comparable to the output of 150–200 nuclear power plants.
• One of these vendors [China’s Huawei] is already banned from the 5G sector in many countries and is currently under investigation in Belgium for bribery and corruption.

[…]

In light of these findings, the ESMC calls for the immediate development of an EU “Inverter Security Toolbox”, modeled after the successful 5G Security Toolbox. This would involve:

• A comprehensive risk assessment of inverter manufacturers.
• A requirement that high-risk vendors must not be permitted to maintain an online connection to European electricity systems.
• Consideration of outright bans for such vendors from connecting to the grid.
• A replication of Lithuania’s proactive legislation – banning inverters from China – across all EU Member States – ensuring security measures apply to PV systems of all sizes.