The EU has blocked public funding for Chinese providers of a key technology used to install solar panels and other energy infrastructure, citing security concerns in Brussels’ latest crackdown on sensitive China-made imports.
The European Commission said imported inverters used to control solar panel installations and other energy technology represented one of “the most pressing threats” to the EU’s critical infrastructure and that any funding would be stopped from November 1.
Siobhan McGarry, a Commission spokesperson, said foreign actors could use inverters to manipulate energy networks across the bloc and gain “unauthorised access to operational data”.