On May 5th local time, the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) announced that it would restrict the remote control function of solar inverters from “high-risk non-European manufacturers” (mainly targeting Chinese enterprises).

Christopher Podwells, the secretary-general of ESMC, pointed out that currently over 200GW of photovoltaic installed capacity in Europe has been connected to inverters made in China, a scale equivalent to that of more than 200 nuclear power plants. This means that Europe has actually largely abandoned remote control of most of its power infrastructure.

The European Solar Manufacturing Council emphasizes that when inverters are connected to the grid to achieve grid functions and software updates, there is a huge hidden danger of cyber security risks caused by remote control. Modern inverters need to be connected to the Internet to perform basic grid functions or participate in the electricity market, but this also provides a way for software updates, making it possible for any manufacturer to remotely change the performance of the equipment, which in turn brings serious cybersecurity threats, such as malicious interference and large-scale downtime. A recent report commissioned by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (SolarPowerEurope) and written by the Norwegian risk management consulting firm DNV also supports this view, stating that malicious or coordinated manipulation of inverters does indeed have the potential to cause chain power outages.