Image by Maria Godfrida from Pixabay
By Jo Nova
Nice grid you have there, shame if someone suddenly… switched it off
Two insiders at the US Dept of Energy say they have found covert devices inside solar panel inverters and batteries that would allow them to communicate with China. Even though firewalls have been put in place, these backdoor devices could operate around them.
Last August a Dutch white hat hacker got into 4 million panels in 150 countries in an effort to warn the West that major infrastructure was vulnerable. A month later an Australian cyber expert warned that a foreign hacker could turn our home batteries into “pager-bombs” too. If a hostile power turned off the overcharge protection on a sunny day, millions of solar panels would be pumping excess electricity into batteries that have no safety cut off. A few houses start to go off like popcorn, and an hour later we’re all living at the Western Front. How exactly would our firemen cope if 1 in 100 homes caught fire at the same time, and then we had a blackout? Anyone?
Individual solar panel inverters are generally too small to trigger national security assessments, but right now at lunchtime solar power is the largest single source of electricity in Australia — making 13 gigawatts out of 27. That’s half our national supply. In summer it’s worse.
We’ve turned our duck curve into a sitting duck…
It’s a win every which way for China if we install more solar panels. Not only are we paying them for the panels, and sanctifying their slavery, but we set fire to our electricity prices, driving our factories to China where they burn our coal. Now to ice this Gridkill Gateau we hand them a backdoor for sabotage or extortion should they ever get the urge to use it.
No wonder China is funding climate activists in the US and UK. They’d be crazy if they weren’t doing it here too.
This is Fall of Rome type stuff, and we’ve got Chris ‘Blackout’ Bowen to save us…
The only good thing about this is that while we were destroying our industrial base with solar panels anyway, the hidden transmitters are so overtly hostile, so in-your-face nasty, that sleeping Westerners might even wake up. Holy smoke. Does anyone think those secret radios were put there to help us?
Reuters: Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters
LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) – U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them, two people familiar with the matter said.
However, rogue communication devices not listed in product documents have been found in some Chinese solar power inverters by U.S experts who strip down equipment hooked up to grids to check for security issues, the two people said. Over the past nine months, undocumented communication devices, including cellular radios, have also been found in some batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers, one of them said.
The rogue components provide additional, undocumented communication channels that could allow firewalls to be circumvented remotely, with potentially catastrophic consequences, the two people said.
“We know that China believes there is value in placing at least some elements of our core infrastructure at risk of destruction or disruption,” said Mike Rogers, a former director of the U.S. National Security Agency. “I think that the Chinese are, in part, hoping that the widespread use of inverters limits the options that the West has to deal with the security issue.”
In November, solar power inverters in the U.S. and elsewhere were disabled from China, highlighting the risk of foreign influence over local electricity supplies and causing concern among government officials, three people familiar with the matter said.
Reuters was unable to determine how many inverters were switched off, or the extent of disruption to grids. The DOE declined to comment on the incident.
The Communist Party could have said that they would never sanction such a hostile act, and it must be a company acting alone, but they didn’t:
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: “We oppose the generalisation of the concept of national security, distorting and smearing China’s infrastructure achievements.”
Infrastructure achievements indeed. A Freudian slip?
There is plenty of risk to share around:
The European Solar Manufacturing Council estimates over 200 GW of European solar power capacity is linked to inverters made in China – equivalent to more than 200 nuclear power plants. At the end of last year, there was 338 GW of installed solar power in Europe, according to industry association SolarPower Europe.
Though Europe is saved, somewhat, by having lots of interconnectors and not much sun. That is, apart from Portugal, Spain and Greece, and we still don’t know what caused that blackout that started in the solar farms?
In Australian Senator James Paterson was warning this was possible in August 2023, saying 58% of solar panel inverters in Australia were made by companies headquartered in China. And what have we done? We installed another half a million solar PV units on homes in Australia.
Gangbusters on the gang-plank.
h/t Charles May, Jakk*, Reader.
What’s in the Chinese electric cars then?
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The Chicomms have banned Teslas near “sensitive” Chinese locations. They wouldn’t have done that were they not aware of the intelligence-gathering capabilities of EVs.
I would not be surprised in the least if Chinese EVs were comprehensive mobile spying platforms disguised as low cost EVs.
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Can Australia, or the UK [home of the Lovespoon, if nothing else manufactured] replace these imported inverters, etc.?
Do we have the technical and manufacturing base to do so – if we wish to do so?
Are we already too far gone?
Auto
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I wonder of its possible to replace the firmware in them? But it depends how closed-down the design is. If not, at least it might be possible to disable any possibility of external communications from the inverter to elsewhere, although that would prevent monitoring and updates etc..
Or how about we just don’t use solar?
Here’s an idea, let’s revert to reliable, inexpensive and environmentally friendly coal, gas, or in mature countries, nuclear power? All supplied from a convenient low-footprint central location.
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A Trojan horse.
Just imagine if the Chicomms decided to turn off all Australian rooftop solar?
The grid would probably collapse, especially after the government destroys the next coal power station.
And that’s exactly why during the first TRUMP administration he banned the import of large scale electrical infrastructure from China, a ban reversed by Biden.
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Notice how smooth the Dispatchable Power is before and after the solar power is there.
No wonder main power supply is always changing frequencies, and therefore costing more to produce.
Nothing quite like helping the people who
do not have your best interests at heart.
I just wonder how long this has been going on for?
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The Chicomms mostly copy, they don’t innovate.
So they are heavily dependent on military and industrial espionage plus relying on the willing services of traitorous politicians, many of whom we have in Australia and other Western countries and the US had under the Biden Maladministration (e.g. those associated with Fang Fang and the driver of Senator Feinstein, discovered to be a spy).
Did you ever wonder why so many Chinese military aircraft look like American ones, or cars, copies of Japanese, European or American ones, or even copies of SpaceX rockets?
Then their Apps like TikTok harvest personnel data, banned for use on Government devices in the US and perhaps elsewhere. The youth of the West are addicted to such Apps but their main purpose is to harvest your information and that of associates plus promote moral degeneracy to weaken the West. Even more so than Farcebook.
Then there’s solar inverters and just about all other “intelligent” domestic appliances like TV’s and robot vacuum cleaners with cameras or security cameras, indoor and outdoor, some banned for Government use in Australia.
And then there’s the possibility that computer chips designed in China have spyware or back doors hard-coded into them, very hard if not impossible to detect.
The more dependent we are on China the weaker the West becomes. Only one world leader, TRUMP, recognises this. His five-move-ahead chess move is to reduce or eliminate US dependence on China, all disguised as a tariff war.
Also see:
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Factional assassin Richard Marles has just bought 2 warships from China. I doubt they’ll be bugged and the steel will definitely be warship grade
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That’s unbelievable.
In addition to being bugged and poor steel, they will have precise knowledge of their capabilities and electromagnetic, optical and acoustic signatures etc..
And probably a master OFF switch like solar panels.
Expect more of this in future.
Don’t forget our PM is a communist as are many Labor members, cabinet ministers and associates.
Back in the day it was considered traitorous and shameful to be a communist. Now Australia is ruled by them at all levels of Government and the senior public “service” and elsewhere such as the judiciary.
Rudy Dutschke’s “long march through the institutions”.
A socialist is just a patient communist.
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How do you know of this purchase?
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All I can find is a fleet of Damon designed tugboats, built in China heading for the port of Darwin.
(Hate using ABC sources but only ones reporting on it.)
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The internet of things is a Chinese plot to destroy the western world! /s
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It would be good to make an open source solar inverter such as:
https://github.com/yakmoh/Green-Energy
But such a design would have to be substantially upgraded to achieve, high power, regulatory compliance and grid feed capabilities.
It might not be possible in places like Australia where Big Green and Chicomms dictate government policy.
And really, the last election in Australia showed that most people simply don’t have a clue and don’t care. They will accept the present situation as long as the free stuff keeps coming and some of the world’s most highly taxed cold beer keeps flowing.
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Again, if we haven’t installed energy security we haven’t installed national security. I mean who doesn’t understand these very simple rules?
Our number one priority is CHEAPER, RELIABLE BASELOAD energy, not EXPENSIVE, UNRELIABLE, TOXIC W & S and a WASTE of trillions of $ and definitely ZERO change to climate by 2050 or 2100.
Chinese slave made toxic panels only provide electricity for about 1.8 months of every year (15%) and they could be booby traps or timebombs as well.
Why are so many OECD countries so stupid and why do our voters install some of the dumbest people on the planet? Why have Aussies voted for delusional Labor, Greens and Teals wreckers who are guaranteed to WASTE TRILLIONS of $ for decades into the future?
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Good point.
Surely it couldn’t or shouldn’t have been Dutton’s lack of a personality, lack of commitment of belief in anything, undermining by Leftists within the party, trying to be “all things to all people” which made the party nothing to anyone…etc..
DESPITE ALL THAT, the Liberals were still a less bad choice than Labor.
I suspect the real reason is the Left’s deliberate dumbing-down of the education system over the last 50 or 60 years, Communist indoctrination and the failure to teach critical thinking skills.
To fix up the mess we need a strong leader like TRUMP (Ley isn’t it), a new genuine conservative pro-science, pro-reason, moral political party and to reform the education system.
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Two thirds of Aussies didnt vote for labor so maybe there is still a bit of hope left?
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34.6% Labor (admittedly not the final tally) vs 31.96 Liberals (incl. Nationals, Lib.Nat Qld, and NT) vs 9.66% for ‘far right’ parties including. Pauline Hansen who got a 1.4% swing (to 6.4%). Clive’s Trumpets got a 1.5% swing to 1.9%.
(The Greens 12.04 down 0.21 and Socialists slight loss and Labor a 2% swing in favour).
It seems to me that the Liberals might have down better without trying to be the same as Labor. Trying to be the same (but more expensive by not disputing Labor’s lies) won’t help.
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