(I hate it when a technical take makes me side with authoritarian propaganda, but well…)

There is zero technical information in that article, yet plenty of people jumping to politically-loaded conclusions. Reminds me of the time when there was a (totally legitimate imho) scare about Huawei backdoors but zero technical details about what was actually found.

So from what I understand, some inverters “phone home”. A despicable habit of too many hardware in the industry, but the phrasing suggests without even confirming that it may be more nefarious than “mere” telemetry that plagues any connected device out there.

“Rogue device” suggests that it is additional hardware. They imply that the add connectivity channels that were not present in the device. Are we talking offline devices that were stealthily loaded with a 5G simcard or a Lora device waiting for a bricking code? It is implied but not stated, which makes me extremely suspicious.

If Chinese authorities can remotely brick solar inverters, it is a matter of national security to disclose the models and the modus operandi asap. It is irresponsible to not help us mitigate the potential of attack. Also, if there are “rogue devices” designed to sabotage your grid, that’s international sabotage, that’s state terrorism. It is important to state it if it is the case, instead of implying it.

“This is a serious issue that the industry needs to address, and it’s even more reason for Congress to maintain tax credits that are onshoring the production of inverters and the entire solar supply chain in the United States."

I suspect that this is the core reason actually. Don’t get me wrong, manufacturing crucial equipment locally is definitely a good idea, but I suspect strongly that these accusation are just a way of dodging the embrassement that Chinese companies’ market share is annoyingly high in a market that westerners were too slow to recognize as critical.