The EU is cutting public funding to clean tech projects using certain Chinese technology that could pose risks to the bloc’s power grid, officials said Monday, May 4. The European Union has in recent years viewed China’s dominance of the green tech sector with increasing suspicion and fears the 27-country bloc’s reliance on Chinese supply as a growing vulnerability.
Brussels has now announced it is banning EU funding for Chinese-made inverters. Described as a “brain” for solar energy systems, inverters help connect renewable sources to the electricity grid. The ban has been in place since early April and applies to new projects – with some leeway granted to projects that have already advanced, an EU official said.
The policy applies to inverters coming from China, notably from firms such as Huawei and Sungrow, but also from Russia, Iran and North Korea, the official said. Technology from states deemed to be “high risk” poses many threats, the EU says.
“Among the most pressing threats is the risk of disruption of the EU’s critical infrastructure by foreign actors,” said EU spokeswoman Siobhan McGarry. “In practice, this could mean a shutdown, a remote shutdown, of member states’ networks, leading to countrywide blackouts,” she added.
The EU plans to prioritize inverters made in Europe, or use suppliers from countries deemed to be more “like-minded,” such as Japan, South Korea, the United States or Switzerland, the official said.