An executive order signed Aug. 26, 2026 declares a national emergency over high-risk foreign equipment in the U.S. electric grid. It targets hardware, software, and firmware used in generation, transmission, and control systems at 69 kV and above—large transformers, grid-tied inverters, battery storage, SCADA, and industrial control systems. No vendor is named yet; the Department of Energy has until Dec. 24, 2026 to issue implementing rules, which could include a prohibited-entity list, a pre-qualified vendor list, or both.
China is the practical focus, since it sits under U.S. arms embargoes along with Russia, Iran, and North Korea but dominates relevant supply chains. The IEA puts China at roughly 80% of world manufacturing capacity for batteries and solar inverters, and Chinese firms account for about half of installed solar inverters globally. The order also reaches past final assembly: a U.S. or European vendor using chips, modules, or software from a covered jurisdiction could still face restrictions, so provenance must be traced across every tier.
Security research supports the concern. Forescout Vedere Labs' March 2025 SUN:DOWN report found 46 vulnerabilities in inverters from Sungrow, Growatt, and SMA, including cloud takeover and remote code execution. Exploited at scale, such flaws could let attackers manipulate generation or stage load-changing attacks. The 2026 order differs from a 2020 predecessor—which was suspended and rescinded—by extending beyond hardware provenance into firmware, update paths, and remote access. A prior order produced only one prohibition action before being withdrawn.