Ikea sells its own balcony power plant for self-assembly.
From this week on, Ikea stores will offer a DIY balcony solar power kit for a small price. It comes with a portable battery included.
Most German solar installations are backed by inverters produced in China. A study now reveals that they have a variety of vulnerabilities for a potential hacker attack.
The power outage in Spain has alarmed the world. A new study by the Norwegian testing and quality institute DNV, commissioned by the association SolarPower Europe, adds fuel to the fire and reinforces experts' concerns that our energy grid may not be secure.
According to the study, a significant risk to Europe's power grid comes from the inverters of solar panels. They could be a gateway for hackers, it is said. China, in particular, could have access here, as the Chinese company Huawei, for example, equips around 114 gigawatts of European solar installations with its inverters. Additionally, large quantities of inverters from other Chinese providers such as Sungrow, GoodWe, and Ginlong are mentioned in the study quoted by Der Spiegel.
If China wanted, it could disable our network.
According to DNV experts' estimate, about 70% of these devices are remotely controllable and could be exploited by cybercriminals or activist hackers. In principle, manufacturers themselves could also carry out such an attack, possibly under state orders, although this is unlikely.
In the event of an attack, the power grid could collapse rapidly, according to Der Spiegel. The study suggests that the loss of just three gigawatts could have a significant impact. European-wide blackouts could become critical at ten gigawatts.
Poorly secured systems
The Norwegians cite software flaws in the login process, inadequately secured programming interfaces, or undocumented or deliberately built-in communication channels (backdoors) as possible entry points for the inverters. According to experts' assessments, many systems are poorly secured.
It is surprising how casually potential security gaps are currently being handled. Manufacturers outside the EU are currently not subject to regulatory oversight. And in most photovoltaic systems on rooftops, direct access by the manufacturer to the inverters is possible without involving a local authority. Even in larger installations covered by the EU Cybersecurity Directive, the DNV experts see security vulnerabilities.