cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/6164123
A security doctrine published by the European Commission has identified solar inverters from Chinese suppliers as a high-risk dependency.
The document, on how to strengthen EU economic security [opens pdf], outlines how the bloc plans to react to growing external economic threats. It says the commission’s immediate focus will be on six priority high-risk areas, identified as reducing strategic dependencies for goods and services; attracting safe investment into the EU; supporting Europe’s defence, space and critical industrial industries; securing EU leadership across critical technologies; protecting sensitive data and shielding Europe’s critical infrastructure.
The communication goes on to specifically highlight reliance on solar inverters as an example of a security risk due to supplier concentration, cyber-manipulation risks, access to grid-relevant operational data and the possibility of actors infiltrating supply chains. Today, around 80% of Europe’s PV systems rely on Chinese inverters.
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Mainstream semiconductors, battery electric vehicles, key components for drones and detection equipment at EU borders are listed as other high-risk dependency areas in the communication.
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has released a statement saying it strongly supports the strategic shift outlined in the document.
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The council says it particularly welcomes the council’s intention to “support the development of trusted suppliers of critical subcomponents in the EU and in trusted third countries so that there are viable alternatives” and reiterated that European and other Western manufacturers remain on the technological forefront, with the manufacturing capacity to meet all of European demand.
ESMC is calling for a series of actions, including the establishment of an EU-level whitelist of trustworthy inverter vendors based on cybersecurity and jurisdictional risk criteria that is integrated into NIS2, the ICT supply‑chain toolbox, NZIA Articles and all relevant EU network codes. It also says EU member states should be permitted to deny grid connection to inverter hardware from high-risk vendors.
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The council has established an Inverter, Storage and Energy Management Systems Forum, open to ESMC members and eligible Western non-members, that it says will work with grid operators, energy-security agencies, standardization bodies and other stakeholders to advance Europe’s digital and energy resilience.
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Focusing only on the inverter brand isn’t enough. The origin of the internal components matters just as much.
I recently read an article (March 2025) about Asian (read Chinese) PCBs and the security risks involved. One key finding was that it is technically possible to embed additional components inside the inner layers of multilayer PCBs, such as espionage chips or sabotage elements (e.g. fuses that can short a circuit). These can be extremely hard, sometimes impossible, to detect—even with X-ray inspection. The article also describes how subtle design weaknesses can enable side-channel attacks that leak information via physical or logical side effects rather than direct data access.
Article (German): https://www.all-electronics.de/elektronik-fertigung/warum-asiatische-leiterplatten-so-guenstig-und-gefaehrlich-sind/725088
On top of that, there have already been documented cases where undocumented communication devices were found in Chinese-made solar inverters—hardware that was not part of the original design:
This means an inverter doesn’t even need an active internet connection to be a potential risk.
In a worst-case scenario, manipulated inverters could theoretically be used to disable large numbers of PV systems at once, potentially destabilising parts of the power grid. That’s why the EU security discussion should not stop at “Chinese inverters” but extend to the full supply chain, including PCBs and embedded components.
if the eu would be so concerned about this they shouldn’t have gutted the solar industry (which germany was leading)
in my country every homeowner wants solar panels on their roof because it’s an investment which will effectively double your money within 20 yearsUNLESS you buy european hardware which is 100-150% more expensive than chinese hardware which also excels in functionality.
the big leading european solar companies: meyer burger, SMA, KACO, QCells, Solar-Fabrik and many more either don’t keep up with new technology (e.g. hybrid inverters) or completely rely on chinese hardware which just gets rebranded and sold back to the eudm (sma using sungrow hardware)
and yes: the manufacturer can effectively turn off solar farms on a whim. remember the huge blackout in spain? this could hit any country if a manufacturer decided to turn off 4GW of power because electrical grids would collapse on such a sudden local power loss. will it happen? probably not.
but it’s still silly that it only becomes a problem YEARS after china completely eclipsed the market and the technology became vital to european energy infrastructure.
homeowner wants solar panels on their roof because it’s an investment which will effectively double your money within 20 years
Investments by private persons in solar roof tops depend on a variety of factors, but at least in Western Europe they break even much sooner than 20 years (if this is what you mean, I don’t understand what ‘double the money’ should mean in this context).
european hardware which is 100-150% more expensive than chinese hardware which also excels in functionality.
This is false. It would be interesting to know where you got this number from. A recent “Not made in China” auction in Italy ended up in a tariff that was 17% higher than the average price for a renewable auction earlier this year with no such a restriction. This number is also what I would say is reasonable for the average home owner in the West. And it’s definitely worth the price.
usually you break even after ~12 years, but with subsidies for feed-in power and savings you get about double your investment. that’s what i meant.
it is not false, a sungrow 10kw hybrid inverter is about 870€, a fitting wallbox 370€ and chinese panels are 13ct/w
if you buy the same from SMA and get meyer burger panels you pay 1700€ for an equivalent inverter, 870€ for the wallbox and pay 23ct/w on much less efficient panels considering w/m^2
where i got these numbers from? i do this for a living
You can install a ‘Europe only’ solar system on your house for a price 15-20% higher than systems using Chinese and/or U.S. parts.
i´m not trying to win an argument here, i´m just stating the facts. sungrow blows every full european home-use system out of the water in price. i did my due diligence and checked my wholesale prices again (i´m bored at work rn) and i have to disagree.
there is a point to be made that bigger systems (100kWp and up) only cost 15-20% more as the price differences on inverters for industrial use aren´t as severe. but then again: it´s hard to beat the 13ct/W price of Jinko panels and if you add an industrial sized battery no european company can a) offer european battery cells and b) offer a competitive price
i have yet to encounter american products, all i can think off the top of my head is Energizer which is literally just selling chinese FoxESS inverters and batteries but painted black and there’s tesla - which only sells batteries which are ridiculously expensive per kWh compared to chinese hardware.
