A group of 30 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) has urged the European Commission to take immediate action to limit Chinese solar inverter manufacturers’ access to the bloc’s critical energy infrastructure, citing mounting cybersecurity risks.
In an open letter addressed to Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President of the Commission, and Dan Jørgensen, Commissioner for Energy and Housing, the MEPs called for “immediate and binding measures” to restrict so-called “high-risk” vendors from participating in Europe’s solar and energy networks.
The letter—first reported by Politico—referenced recent steps taken by cybersecurity agencies in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Germany, which have either banned or issued warnings about the security vulnerabilities of Chinese-made PV inverters. These risks reportedly stem from remote cloud access to inverter systems, which could be exploited either by the vendors themselves or by hackers breaching cloud servers.
The MEPs warned that the EU’s slow response could have serious industrial consequences: “When the ongoing studies are completed and potential legislation is tabled, as much as two years may have passed. By that time, Europe risks having lost its remaining PV inverter manufacturers,” the letter said.
They emphasized that while Western inverter companies still have the capacity to supply European demand, unfair competition from China has already led to sharp market share losses across Europe’s inverter industry.
According to data from PV wholesale platform sun.store, Huawei, Sungrow, GoodWe, and Deye were among the top five vendors of string and hybrid inverters in Europe in 2023. The letter further claimed that Huawei alone supplied 115GW of inverters to the European market last year, with Chinese-made equipment representing around 80% of all new PV inverter capacity installed in 2024.
Meanwhile, non-Chinese inverter manufacturers such as SMA Solar and Fronius have struggled to remain profitable amid intensifying competition and a slowdown in the European residential solar market. Industry association SolarPower Europe has previously called for greater policy support for European inverter producers and stronger cybersecurity standards for digitalized inverter systems.
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) announced that it “fully endorses” the MEPs’ letter.
The letter concluded with a warning that without swift intervention, the EU risks undermining both its energy security and the survival of Europe’s remaining inverter manufacturers: “Without immediate and binding EU action, Europe risks not only its energy security but also the viability of all remaining European manufacturers in this sector.”
