A former NSA intelligence analyst is sounding the alarm about rogue communications hardware discovered inside Chinese-made solar inverters—devices that link solar panels to the U.S. electric grid. The revelation, confirmed by two sources speaking to Reuters, raises urgent national security concerns about potential sabotage from within America’s own energy infrastructure.
According to the sources, the devices contain undocumented communication channels capable of bypassing firewalls—effectively creating secret remote-access pathways. These “backdoors” were not disclosed in official product documentation and have been found repeatedly over the past nine months in batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers.
“It very much fits into the model of China implanting hardware in American critical infrastructure for the purpose of planning cyberattacks against the United States,” said Rocky Cole, a former NSA analyst and co-founder of cybersecurity firm iVerify. “It’s difficult not to view Chinese-made hardware in the realm of critical infrastructure as a national security threat in my mind.”
These discoveries are particularly alarming given that the inverters are widely used on American farms and in rural communities—areas often overlooked in national grid security protocols.
China’s own national security laws mandate that Chinese companies must assist their intelligence services when called upon. In other words, any company supplying equipment—whether solar or telecom—is a potential arm of the Communist regime.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington denied the allegations, calling them “presumptions of guilt under unclear facts,” but experts aren’t buying it.
Cole emphasized that the inclusion of cellular radios and covert comms gear fits the Chinese Communist Party’s broader strategy of quietly embedding surveillance and sabotage capabilities into American infrastructure well before any open conflict arises. He pointed to Taiwan as a likely flashpoint that could trigger China’s use of these dormant systems.
“Without strict oversight of supply chains, it becomes very difficult to certify with any confidence that your hardware doesn’t contain these backdoors,” Cole warned.
This is just the latest example of growing scrutiny over China’s presence in critical U.S. systems, from telecom to drones to electric vehicle components. And it comes as President Trump pushes for stronger domestic supply chains and tighter restrictions on foreign-made infrastructure components.
With tens of thousands of these solar inverters already installed across the U.S., the question isn’t just whether China could sabotage our power grid—it’s whether they’ve already installed the kill switch.
