Out of cybersecurity concerns, members of the European Parliament have urged the European Commission to restrict Chinese solar inverter manufacturers from accessing the EU's energy infrastructure.
In an open letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, 30 MEPs called for "immediate and binding measures" to prevent "high-risk" solar inverter suppliers from entering Europe's critical energy infrastructure.
The letter, leaked by Politico, states that cybersecurity agencies in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Germany have taken action, either banning or issuing warnings about the potential risks that Chinese-made photovoltaic inverters pose to the European power grid. These risks primarily stem from companies accessing inverters remotely via the cloud or hacking into suppliers' cloud servers.
The signatories urged the European Commission to expedite its risk assessment process and submit "concrete proposals" to restrict "high-risk" suppliers from entering the market, while simultaneously supporting European inverter manufacturers.
The letter states, “By the time the ongoing research is completed and the relevant legislation is submitted, two years may have passed. By then, Europe may have already lost its remaining photovoltaic inverter manufacturers. Although Western companies are still capable of meeting European demand, their market share in Europe is declining sharply. If one of these companies goes bankrupt due to unfair competition from China, the EU may soon lose all non-Chinese alternatives.” The European inverter market has recently been dominated by Chinese suppliers; data from the photovoltaic wholesale platform sun.store shows that Huawei, Sungrow Power, Goodwe, and Deye are all among the top five suppliers of string and hybrid inverters. The open letter states that Huawei alone supplied 115GW of inverters to Europe in 2023, and “80%” of all new photovoltaic inverter capacity in 2024 will come from China. European module prices stabilize at low levels: Jinko jumps to first place, by JA Solar, LONGi, and Trina Solar.
Meanwhile, with increasing competition from China and a slowdown in the European residential solar market, non-Chinese inverter manufacturers have been struggling to achieve profitability. Previously, industry association SolarPower Europe called for increased support for European inverter manufacturers such as SMA Solar and Fronius, and stricter cybersecurity restrictions on digital inverter infrastructure.
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) expressed its "full support" for the letter.
The letter concluded by stating, "If the EU does not take immediate and binding action, Europe will not only face energy security risks, but also jeopardize the viability of all remaining European manufacturers in the sector." Regarding solar cybersecurity, Erika Langerova, head of cybersecurity research at UCEEB, a research center at the Czech Technical University in Prague, "well-written and, if implemented correctly, should be effective. I think Brussels has learned from the mistakes made in implementing the 5G toolkit earlier."
The 5G toolkit introduces specific cybersecurity measures for the telecommunications industry to manage the EU's 5G infrastructure. Notably, these measures allow countries to restrict or ban certain companies from the industry, similar to the UK's restriction of Huawei's entry into the telecommunications sector for cybersecurity reasons, but without specifying any particular company.
Despite the rapid adoption of the technology in Europe, the solar industry has not yet faced similar restrictions. Last month, Huawei regained its membership in SolarPower Europe after legal disputes.
A June report by cybersecurity firm Forescout found that the European solar industry faces higher cybersecurity risks than any other region in the world. This is because many inverters have open external internet access, often through cloud servers managed by companies outside the EU. Malicious actors accessing these servers could damage or shut down individual inverters, potentially leading to localized or nationwide power outages or damage to critical infrastructure.
EU-wide restrictions would have a significant impact on the industry. “I think there will be intense discussions, a lot of lobbying, and attempts to bribe policymakers to stop these efforts,” Langerova told PV Tech. “The EU is a huge market for Chinese companies, and they won’t give it up easily.”
