Western nations’ — including Canada’s — growing reliance on Chinese-manufactured components in renewable energy systems is raising alarm across the US and Europe, following the discovery of so-called "kill switches" embedded in solar panels.
According to sources cited by Reuters, American engineers inspecting solar equipment found rogue communication devices hidden inside Chinese-made power inverters — key components that connect solar and wind energy to the power grid.
The Telegraph caused a stir in the UK after it reported on Friday that hostile governments, such as China, could remotely inflict blackouts and cause irreparable damage to entire power grids increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
Those unauthorized devices, including cellular radios, can allegedly bypass firewalls to allow remote access, altering settings, or even shutting down the systems entirely.
One security expert described the discovery as revealing a “built-in way to physically destroy the grid.”
The revelations have sparked intense concern within US energy circles, with the Department of Energy (DOE) confirming it is assessing the risks and working to strengthen disclosure requirements for such components.
The revelations come amid growing scrutiny of the dominance of Chinese manufacturers in the global "green energy" supply chain.
Two Chinese companies, Huawei and Sungrow, produced over half of the world’s solar power inverters in 2023, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
Europe’s grid is increasingly reliant on those components, with more than 200 gigawatts of solar capacity on the continent tied to Chinese-made inverters, equivalent to 200 nuclear power stations, according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
Philipp Schroeder, CEO of German renewables firm 1Komma5, warned that the situation has reached a critical mass, “Ten years ago, switching off Chinese inverters wouldn’t have crippled the grid. Now, it’s a different story.”
In November, a dispute erupted between a Texas-based energy firm and its Chinese supplier, Zhejiang-based Deye, after Chinese-made inverters were reportedly switched off remotely.
While it’s unclear if that incident involved sabotage or technical error, it highlights the vulnerabilities posed by foreign control of critical infrastructure.
Following the revelations, the UK government is now under pressure to act.
On Thursday, Shadow Energy Minister Andrew Bowie called for an “immediate pause and review” of the government’s renewable energy rollout, citing national security risks.
He also referenced existing concerns flagged by the Ministry of Defence regarding potential surveillance technology embedded in Chinese-made wind turbines.
The British government has not halted its push toward renewables. Plans remain in place to mandate solar panels on new homes by 2027 and to install solar carports across commercial spaces.
A government spokesperson insisted the UK’s energy sector is subject to the “highest levels of national security scrutiny.”
These new threats come on the heels of unexplained large-scale grid failures in Spain and Portugal — countries that heavily rely on solar and wind power.
While the precise causes remain unconfirmed, the blackouts followed a sudden loss of around 2 gigawatts of generation capacity, raising fresh concerns about the grid’s resilience in an era of expanding renewables.
The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the allegations, calling them a “smear” and criticizing what it termed the politicization of infrastructure cooperation.
Canada's solar panel industry relies heavily on Chinese-made components and modules, with Canadian companies often engaging in final assembly of Chinese-produced parts.
In October of last year, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) argued against tariffs on Chinese made solar components in a submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, calling surcharges on Chinese made products “untenable” and would threaten Canada’s renewable energy targets to be net-zero by 2050.
“These products are not produced in any meaningful volume domestically,” it wrote.
“The tariffs or surcharges proposed by FIN will put Canada’s broader net-zero goals, particularly, the accelerated deployment of renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission in jeopardy … without access to mature supply chains with quantity and quality of components from proven manufacturers, Canada’s electricity sector cannot expand quickly enough to meet the needs of Canada’s growing economy and the climate crisis. Hobbling our ability to rise to this challenge with tariffs would be a mistake."