PARIS -- Recent power outages in Spain and Portugal have focused attention on Europe's solar energy infrastructure, which sources its parts almost entirely from China.
The cause of the widespread late-April blackout in the two countries is still under investigation. Officials in Spain, which trades energy with its smaller neighbor and relies on renewables to meet over half its needs, made conflicting statements this week about whether a cyberattack had been ruled out. What is certain, though, is that the outages have highlighted cybersecurity weaknesses.
Awash with Chinese solar panels and parts made by companies such as Huawei Technologies, Europe is increasingly concerned about the safety of its power infrastructure, especially as its energy transition has led to the digitalization of the sector, making it vulnerable to remote attacks.
"There is always the concern about energy security in case of events that disrupt global supply chains and access to PV [photovoltaic] components hailing from China," said Marius Bakke, vice president of solar research at Rystad Energy, an Oslo-based research provider.
Bakke pointed to "remote access to European electricity infrastructure through inverters, which could severely impact Europe's power grid if these were to be targeted in a cyberattack."
He suggested that EU countries should follow fellow bloc member Lithuania's move last year to pass a law that limits remote access to inverters at its solar and wind power plants that produce more than 100 kilowatts of energy, aimed at preventing sabotage.
SolarPower Europe, a lobby group, has also advised the European Union to limit inverter access, and more widely, called on the bloc to enhance the security of imported solar power systems.
Inverters are devices that adapt the currents produced by solar panels for transmission to electricity grids. Sometimes called the brains of solar panels, inverters are considered vulnerable to cyberattacks, as most of them are designed to be controlled remotely, such as for maintenance operations.
"Simulations suggest that a targeted compromise of 3 GW [gigawatts] can have significant implications for Europe's power grid," said a recent SolarPower Europe report, adding that over a dozen of companies -- in and out of Europe -- control capacities significantly higher than that.
Among them, seven companies each handle over 10 GW, which means that a security breach in just one could severely hit the European grid.
Huawei produces around a third of inverters used in Europe. The tech giant was expelled from SolarPower Europe on April 28 after the European Commission said it would restrict meetings with associations affiliated with Huawei. Several Huawei executives are being investigated -- some charged -- in Brussels for alleged corruption involving EU lawmakers.
Huawei declined to comment about its role in Europe.
Brussels last year also launched a probe into uncompetitive practices by Chinese solar panel manufacturers, which resulted in two companies withdrawing their bids in a Romanian public tender last year.
Solar is the fastest growing energy source in Europe, where capacity deployed in 2024 was higher than all other energy technologies combined, according to SolarPower Europe. Brussels' aim is to harness 600 GW of solar energy by 2030. For context, 1 GW of energy can power 100 million LED light bulbs, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
But the International Energy Agency warned of the concentration of solar manufacturing capacities in Asia, with China accounting for 80% of the market worldwide, and even up to 95% for some components.
China controls the entire supply chain, from the mining and refining of raw materials to the production of ingots, wafers, cells and modules or panels.
It's been so successful that its supplies are outpacing demand both in China and abroad, dragging global prices down, according to the IEA's Renewables 2024 report. Beijing's heavy subsidies and investment in the industry drove down solar panel costs by 80% in a decade, which led to a boom in solar capacities worldwide.
For Europe, cutting all reliance on China in the sector may be unrealistic though. Brussels aims to achieve resilience in key sectors "to avoid economic blackmail" and dependencies on a single country, rather than attain self-sufficiency, said Paris-based Diana Gherasim, head of European energy and climate policies at French think tank IFRI.
Gherasim said leveling the playing field would mitigate risks. Brussels is aiming to do that with its Net Zero Industry Act, adopted in 2023 to boost the sector by offering financing and subsidy support and favorable regulations.
"If we don't have measures to push European production, and market regulations, the market will make it impossible to sell modules" made in Europe, said Vincent Delporte, head of public affairs at HoloSolis, a startup building a solar cell and module gigafactory in eastern France.
Apart from the economic and political implications, Brussels is also committed morally to stop imports linked to forced labor under a law it brought in late last year. This will have an impact on the solar value chain, given as polysilicon, a material also use in semiconductors, is vastly mined and refined in China's Xinjiang region, where forced labor has been alleged.
"The green transition cannot be at the cost of human rights," said Stockholm-based Jens Holm, policy director at the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
"That is why it's so important to cut the dependency from China, and to re-shore manufacturing," added Holm, who is a former lawmaker both in Sweden and at the European Parliament.
He said he believes Brussels should adopt a tougher stance against forced labor, similar to Washington's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act which took effect in 2022.
Rystad Energy said the ban boosted demand for polysilicon sourced outside of China, but also resulted in the relocation of Chinese polysilicon sites from Xinjiang to other provinces.
