The West's next mass blackouts might be ‘made in China'

Yahoo

19-05-2025

'Cheap, clean power, to give us energy security,' declared Ed Miliband, as he strode through a grassy field flanked by rows of solar panels.
With a film crew in tow, the Energy Secretary visited Castle Hill solar farm, in East Yorkshire, last Thursday to promote the launch of Great British Energy, the new publicly owned energy company.
If he gets his way, there will soon be many more sites like it. Under Labour's clean power mission, the Government wants to almost triple the amount of British solar capacity by 2030.
Yet while ministers say this will ensure we 'take back control of our energy system', there are fears that sourcing large amounts of kit from China will achieve precisely the opposite.
Just hours before Miliband's visit to Yorkshire, it was reported that American engineers had discovered the presence of secret components in Chinese-made power inverters used by US solar farms.
Power inverters take the DC electricity generated by solar panels and change it into a AC format the grid can use.
The parts, which were not included in any schematics, included communication devices such as cellular radios that would bypass other protections and allow the inverters to be remotely disabled.
In other words, it represents a potential 'kill switch'.
If replicated elsewhere, experts warned it could pose a serious threat to grid security. Shutting off even three to four gigawatts (GW) of capacity at once can trigger a cascading wave of power cuts in a modern electricity network.
It was not clear this week which Chinese supplier or solar farm was involved. Nor was it immediately clear whether the presence of the hidden components was deliberate or a mistake. It is normal for equipment to have some internet-connected parts, usually to administer 'over the air' software updates.
But the revelations have sent shockwaves through the solar industry and have triggered fresh scrutiny of Chinese suppliers and their role in Western infrastructure – particularly given China's dominance over particular critical technologies.
In Britain for example, more than two fifths of imported solar panels come directly from China, according to HM Revenue & Customs. One solar panel executive said the true market share of Chinese suppliers may be even higher, given that some will be resold by companies based in Europe.
Globally, Chinese companies have the solar supply chain in a near-total stranglehold. They control 79pc of manufacturing capacity for polysilicon (the crystalline material used to make wafers), 97pc of wafer manufacturing, 85pc of solar cell manufacturing and 75pc of module or panel manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Chinese firms account for about two thirds of global power inverter shipments, as well as around 60pc of the market in the UK, according to Wood Mackenzie.
The biggest two companies by far are Huawei and Sungrow, followed by Ginlong Solis and Sineng.
British sites that appear to have used Sungrow inverters include the Strensham and Llanwern solar parks, in Worcestershire and South Wales respectively, owned by Next Energy. On Friday, a spokesman for the company did not respond to a request for comment.
Similarly, the Skeeby and Bishampton solar farms in Yorkshire and Worcestershire were built by a company that struck an inverter supply deal with Huawei for its UK sites in 2015, The Telegraph has found. Spokespeople for the owners did not respond to a request for comment either. There is no evidence of similar devices being found on these farms.
The dominance of Chinese firms is largely down to price, particularly in the UK, where competition is intense.
'In regions like Europe, where you have competition between Chinese manufacturers and more traditional Western manufacturers, a Chinese utility-scale inverter is often half the cost of a similar Western one,' says Joe Shangraw, a solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
European firms claim their Chinese rivals are selling their equipment for less than the cost of production, a 'dumping' strategy aimed at destroying the competition.
But the current state of play also reflects Beijing's years-long quest to dominate key technologies under the Made in China 2025 industrial strategy, which has handed companies in favoured sectors massive state support.
Now, top suppliers such as Huawei are not just cheap – they are also the most technologically sophisticated, says Shangraw.
Still, critics have long warned that allowing China to gain so much control over solar supply chains risks, at the very least, putting Western countries in an uncomfortable position.
Miliband, for example, admitted in March that many of the solar panels deployed in Britain would inevitably be sourced in China – triggering concerns that the Government's net zero push risked unintentionally supporting suppliers infamous for using forced labour in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing has instituted a brutal crackdown on Uyghur Muslims. There is no suggestion that Huawei or Sungrow is linked to this scandal.
Others warned that giving Beijing so much leverage over Western supply chains would allow it to apply huge diplomatic pressure during disagreements.
Yet for experts and politicians, the concerns raised by the discovery of hidden components in Chinese power inverters hit much closer to home. If they are the result of foul play, it implies Beijing could inflict mass blackouts on the US and Europe during a crisis.
More than 200GW of European solar capacity now depends on Chinese-made inverters, according to the European Solar Manufacturing Council.
'If you control such an amount of inverters and you turn them off in a coordinated way, you could cause blackouts across Europe in just a second,' warns Christoph Podewils, the council's secretary general.
Even if you believe Chinese firms themselves present no risk, Podewils says that having so much capacity concentrated in the hands of Huawei and Sungrow – which control the majority of the European market – is a risk in itself.
'You've got a single country that basically controls the European power system, or in particular just two companies. They could be very effective targets for hackers to blackmail them, for instance, even if they do not really want to control the system.'
This is one reason Podewils and European manufacturers are now lobbying for governments to impose restrictions of the kind imposed on Huawei's role in telecoms networks due to Western spying concerns.
Though Huawei has always denied it poses any threat, British ministers announced a clampdown in 2020 that banned the Chinese company from having any role in 5G mobile infrastructure and limited its reach to just 35pc of fibre optic networks.
The Conservatives have called for an investigation into the similar concerns about Chinese solar inverters.
Andrew Bowie, a shadow energy minister, urged Miliband to pause his clean power rollout until ministers have clarity over whether UK solar farms could be a risk.
The Government has insisted it will 'never let anything get in the way of our national security', adding: 'Our energy sector is subject to the highest levels of scrutiny.'
But on Friday, Tory backbencher Nick Timothy accused Miliband of being 'a danger to our energy and national security'.
'This tech could allow a hostile state to knock out our grid – potentially for a long time – and immobilise infrastructure and key equipment,' he added.
Solar farm owners are understood to be investigating the claims, with industry body Solar Energy UK insisting that power inverters can be replaced relatively quickly if necessary.
However, ditching Chinese suppliers entirely would not come without cost, Wood Mackenzie's Shangraw says.
'There are going to be downsides to that, especially in terms of pricing,' he warns.
In recent years, the order to rip out Huawei kit from telecoms networks has been blamed for inflicting billions of pounds of extra costs on mobile and internet operators – and by extension consumers.
If the worst comes to pass, it means Miliband's gamble on Chinese solar may not deliver cheap power or energy security after all.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.