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The Growing Threat: How Hackers Can Exploit Solar Panels and the Power Grid

Solar power is becoming increasingly connected to the digital systems that monitor, control, and manage the electric grid. That connectivity brings important benefits, but it also creates new cybersecurity risks.


The concern is not usually the solar panels themselves. Instead, vulnerabilities can exist in the equipment and software connected to them, including inverters, monitoring platforms, communications systems, and battery controllers.


Solar Systems Can Become Cyber Targets

In 2025, Forbes reported on vulnerabilities found in solar energy systems, including weak or unchanged default passwords and exposed remote-access systems. In one case, a cybersecurity researcher demonstrated how weaknesses in a solar installation's management equipment could potentially provide access to connected systems.


The U.S. Department of Energy has also warned that Internet-connected solar inverters and other distributed energy resources can create cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Because inverters control how electricity from solar systems is delivered to homes and the grid, a successful cyberattack could potentially affect both digital systems and physical electrical operations.


The growing number of smaller, distributed systems presents an additional challenge. Unlike large utility-scale facilities, many smaller solar and battery systems are owned and operated by individual customers and may have different levels of cybersecurity protection.


The Wider Grid Is Also Under Pressure

The risk extends beyond individual solar installations. In 2024, cyberattacks against U.S. utilities increased by 70% compared with the same period in 2023, according to Check Point Research data reported by Reuters. Researchers linked the growing exposure in part to the increasing digitalization of the power sector and the continued use of older software and systems.


The increase in attacks does not mean that the U.S. grid is routinely being shut down by hackers. Reuters reported that no major U.S. utility disruption had resulted from these attacks at the time. However, cybersecurity experts have warned that a sufficiently capable and coordinated attack could have much broader consequences.


Australia Offers a Warning

Australia provides another example of the cybersecurity questions emerging alongside rapid renewable-energy adoption.


In 2024, Energy Renaissance CEO Brian Craighead warned that software-controlled home battery systems could present a potential security risk if their communications and control systems were poorly protected. He pointed to more than 250,000 home battery systems in Australia and argued that malicious access to battery-management software could potentially create dangerous conditions.


Importantly, these warnings do not mean that Australia's home batteries have been hacked or that 250,000 systems are known to be vulnerable. Rather, they highlight a broader concern: as more household batteries become connected to energy networks, their cybersecurity becomes part of the country's overall energy-security challenge.


How Can the Risk Be Reduced?

Cybersecurity needs to be considered as part of the design and operation of renewable-energy systems, not added only after problems appear. The Department of Energy recommends measures including multifactor authentication, encryption, security standards, continuous monitoring, and stronger protections for distributed energy resources.


For system owners and operators, basic measures can also make a difference:

  • Change default passwords and use strong, unique credentials.

  • Keep firmware and software updated to address known vulnerabilities.

  • Use multifactor authentication whenever it is available.

  • Limit remote access to devices and management platforms.

  • Separate critical energy equipment from other networks where possible.

  • Monitor systems for unusual activity and maintain a plan for responding to a cyber incident.


The transition to renewable energy is also becoming a transition toward a more digitally connected energy system. Solar panels, batteries, smart inverters, virtual power plants, and other distributed energy resources can make the grid more flexible and resilient, but their connections also create new points that need to be secured.


Cybersecurity, therefore, is becoming an important part of the clean-energy transition itself.




Sources

#SolarEnergy #SolarPower #Cybersecurity #EnergySecurity #SmartGrid #RenewableEnergy #EnergyInfrastructure #BatteryStorage #CleanEnergy #GridSecurity #ClimateTechnology #SustainabilityExploding solar? Battery attack warnings heat up


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