Solar Panels And The Chinese Threat

Many have heard about the recent power outages in Spain and Portugal, but they haven’t heard about the failed backup plan, which was supposed to see the two countries get emergency power from France’s nuclear grid. People died, lives were interrupted, and the perception of wonderful clean energy took a major hit. It can happen here, through a combination of the inherent limitations of renewable energy and the fact that China is deeply entangled in America’s renewables.

Spain and Portugal rely on wind and solar energy for about 56% and 42% respectively for their electrical needs, which is one of the highest reliances of any country. Their grids failed primarily due to what experts call “grid instability.”

To understand this, you first must know that nuclear, coal, and gas power plants have massive steel turbines that provide large rotating mass—inertia that can maintain stability if there are fluctuations in the grid. Wind and solar don’t have this regulating mechanism, which, in America, gives us our all-important 60 Hz power. There are ways around the problem, but the alternatives are expensive and unproven.

a photo by AleSpa (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Wind and solar power are unstable because they don’t provide baseload power; that is, the minimum electrical demand level that must be consistently met. It represents the steady energy production required to keep essential services, industries, and infrastructure running, regardless of fluctuations in usage. Baseload power is provided by energy sources that run uninterrupted, such as:

• Coal-fired power plants
• Nuclear power plants
• Large-scale hydroelectric plants
• Geothermal power

By definition, wind and solar are inherently unreliable; the sun sets and winds abate, at which point power production ceases. Demand, however, is always there. Even using batteries is a stopgap measure, so much so that the Biden administration realized that wind and solar could not meet all demand scenarios and, therefore, were planning to tap the batteries in EVs to supplement the grid.

The bottom line is that wind and solar power will never be able to replace traditional baseload power sources. Attempting to do so will require huge capital investments in new peaking (backup power) sources and storage mechanisms, and the cost of electricity will continue to soar, leading to a lowered quality of life.

And then there’s the China problem of renewable energy, given that China is the world’s primary manufacturer of solar panels.

Solar panels that make electricity suitable for the power grid are usually connected to the web and can be “easily hacked, remotely disabled or compromised for DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service] attacks.” DDoS attacks try to overwhelm a system. Solar panels have intrinsic vulnerabilities to hacking due to the dominance of a single country, China, in the supply chain.”

If there were such an attack, Daniel Croft explains how bad it would be:

Cyber Security CRC chief executive Rachael Falk said that the threat presented by foreign-manufactured solar inverters is a recent one, as only recent models are internet-connected due to increased interest in smart home technology.

“Traditionally, cyber risk with solar inverters was low because they were not connected to the internet,” said Falk.

“However, as the popularity of smart home energy systems has boomed, this has changed, with most solar inverters now web connected.”

Falk continued to say that an attack on the solar grid could spark a “black start” event, which could result in the entire power grid going down.

“While an attack on one home solar system would not impact the grid, scaled, targeted simultaneous attacks could be catastrophic, resulting in a ‘black start’ event.

“In a black start event, power plants are incapable of turning back on without reliance on an auxiliary power source, like a generator or battery.

“This could bring down an entire power grid, and it could take a week to recover,” she said.

As the tweet above indicates, China has “kill switch” plans for those solar panels it controls. Experts worry that these devices could be exploited to remotely disable or alter the operation of solar farms, disrupting power grids.

China, of course, has dismissed these claims as politically motivated, leaving us asking how much we are willing to trust China. It shouldn’t be much because China has demonstrated its intentions already:

• Cityworks Zero-Day Exploit (2025)—A Chinese-speaking hacker group exploited a vulnerability in Trimble Cityworks, a system used by local governments and utilities for infrastructure management. The attackers accessed utility management systems, deploying malware to maintain long-term persistence.
• Volt Typhoon Campaign—The Volt Typhoon group, linked to China, has been identified as a major cyber threat to U.S. utilities. They use “living-off-the-land“ techniques, exploiting existing infrastructure rather than deploying obvious malware, making detection difficult.
• Massachusetts Public Utility Breach (2025)—The VOLTZITE hacker group successfully breached a public power utility in Massachusetts, collecting operational technology data and geographic information system (GIS) files. Their tactics allowed them to remain undetected for months.

These attacks highlight China’s long-term cyber strategy, which focuses on infiltrating critical infrastructure to maintain access for potential future disruptions.

Combined with what we already know about Huawei’s networking equipment containing hidden capabilities designed for cyber-attacks and China’s infrastructure attacks, there can be no doubt of China’s malevolent intent. The threat is so well known that the U.S. government has issued multiple warnings and restrictions regarding Huawei, particularly its AI chips and telecommunications equipment. Recently, the Department of Commerce stated that using Huawei’s Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world violates U.S. export controls.

We now have no excuse to ignore this threat!

Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com.

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