EU to ban high-risk inverters from solar projects with public funding

The European Commission is tightening its stance on Chinese inverter manufacturers. According to information from Commission circles, first reported by Der Spiegel, projects financed with EU funds — such as those backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) or the European Investment Fund (EIF) — will no longer be permitted to use inverters from so-called 'high-risk suppliers'. In practice, this primarily targets dominant Chinese manufacturers that supply a significant share of solar inverters installed across the EU.

The Commission bases its action on its December 2025 communication on strengthening EU economic security, which identified six high-risk areas requiring urgent action. The core concern around inverters is concentrated dependency on suppliers from a single country, which could enable manipulation of power generation parameters, disruption of grid feed-in, and unauthorized access to operational data. In extreme scenarios, such interference could trigger large-scale blackouts.

As a medium-term measure, the Commission points to the Cybersecurity Act, which could eventually allow inverters from high-risk providers to be excluded entirely from the EU single market. However, given that risks are already present, the Commission has decided to act immediately by issuing guidelines that restrict the use of EU subsidies for projects involving such suppliers.

A transitional arrangement is provided for projects already connected — or planned to be connected — to the European power grid. These can continue to receive EU funding if they are reported to the Commission by 1 May and submitted for a decision by 1 November. All new projects will be required to exclude high-risk inverter suppliers from the outset. The move marks a significant escalation in the EU's efforts to de-risk its clean energy supply chain.