🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The EU funding ban comes from security concerns and China’s grip on the market

• The EU is moving in a market where Chinese firms lead. Huawei Technologies and Sungrow were the top two solar inverter makers in the first half of last year, and China held 80% of global supply 1.
• The central fear is remote access. Chinese companies, or the Chinese state, could reach solar inverters and linked power systems, then add a surge or cut capacity at scale 2.
• That concern grows because of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law. The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), the EU’s in-house security think tank, argues the law can legally require Chinese producers to share product information with the state 2.
• Governments have already acted. Lithuanian, Czech and German cybersecurity agencies have banned or warned against risks tied to Chinese-made photovoltaic (PV) inverters 3.

The move fits a broader EU effort to reduce reliance in sensitive technology

• The inverter decision follows earlier EU worries about Huawei in 5G telecoms networks, which suggests a familiar approach for reducing reliance in sensitive sectors 2.
• Europe is also weighing an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), an EU framework for supporting large cross-border industrial projects, for inverters to support manufacturing and innovation 4.
• The same thinking could spread to other green industries where China leads, including wind turbines. EUISS says China produced 70% of the world’s wind turbines by 2024 2.
• These limits could speed up a split in global supply chains, as Western countries build separate systems for critical infrastructure.