US senators press for China’s Huawei to be excluded from solar power market as those systems are ‘vulnerable to cyberattacks’
- ‘Both large-scale photovoltaic systems and those used by homeowners, school districts, and businesses are equally vulnerable to cyberattacks,’ the lawmakers say
A bipartisan group of senators on Monday urged the US government to block Huawei Technologies from supplying solar energy generators just as it has acted to keep the Chinese giant out of the US telecommunications network.
The 11 lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security and the Energy Department to prevent Huawei from providing solar inverters, which convert solar energy to power that is usable on power grids for US energy companies.
“Both large-scale photovoltaic systems and those used by homeowners, school districts and businesses are equally vulnerable to cyberattacks. Our federal government should consider a ban on the use of Huawei inverters in the United States,” the lawmakers said in a letter.
The letter was signed by Republican Senators John Cornyn, Richard Burr, James Risch, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney; Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Dianne Feinstein; and independent Angus King.
Huawei is a relatively recent entrant to the US power market, but has developed a new generation of low-cost solar inverters, which convert, manage and monitor energy produced by solar panels for home use.