In November 2024, several major news outlets, including Reuters, and The Times (UK), reported a vague but alarming incident: that solar power inverters in the United States were remotely disabled from China, raising fears of embedded “kill switches” and foreign control over U.S. energy infrastructure.
Curious about the veracity of those claims, FYIVT began investigating. What we found confirmed that a mass shutdown of solar inverters did indeed occur in mid-November—but the root cause appears to have been far more commercial than conspiratorial.
The Incident: Inverters Go Dark Nationwide
Around November 15, 2024, a significant number of residential and small-scale solar users across the U.S. began reporting mysterious outages. Their systems, powered by solar inverters manufactured by Chinese company Zhejiang Deye Technology, abruptly stopped functioning. Homeowners and installers found cryptic error messages on their inverter screens. One message read:
“This inverter is not allowed use at: USA. Please contact your supplier.”
Solar forums and installer channels lit up with complaints. The problem wasn’t isolated. Reports came from Arizona, Puerto Rico, and beyond. The inverters had effectively been “bricked”—shut down remotely via software commands.
The Brands Involved: Deye and Sol-Ark
The inverters at the center of the incident were Deye hybrid units, often sold in the U.S. under the Sol-Ark brand name. However, many affected users had purchased inverters that were not officially sold through Sol-Ark, meaning they fell outside of Sol-Ark’s support and warranty channels.
Following legal action by Sol-Ark to enforce its exclusive U.S. distribution agreement, Deye reportedly issued a remote shutdown command for all of its inverters operating in regions not supported by Sol-Ark, including the U.S., UK, and Pakistan. This mass deactivation occurred on November 15, 2024.
Sol-Ark’s Response
Sol-Ark issued a public clarification, assuring customers that its own branded inverters were unaffected. The company stated:
“Sol-Ark products were not bricked and are not connected to the Deye cloud system.”
They added that the shutdown affected only Deye-branded inverters or units sold by unauthorized resellers. Sol-Ark also launched a replacement program to help affected homeowners acquire supported equipment at reduced cost.
Was It a Cybersecurity Threat?
The national headlines left the impression that the incident might have involved cyber sabotage or state-backed interference from China. The Times claimed inverters had been “disabled from China,” while Reuters raised concerns about the potential for Beijing to remotely disrupt local electricity supplies.
But the facts suggest otherwise: the incident appears to have been a commercial enforcement action, not a geopolitical test run. Deye’s cloud infrastructure allowed it to disable its own inverters globally—and it did so in response to a reseller dispute, not a military directive.
Real “Kill Switch”? Or Feature Misused?
Cloud-connected energy devices often include remote management tools for diagnostics and updates. Deye’s ability to shut down inverters remotely wasn’t unique—it’s a feature used by many manufacturers. What’s unique here is how the feature was used: with no warning, across multiple countries, and for legal—not safety—reasons.
This raised serious concerns about vendor lock-in, supply-chain transparency, and unauthorized connectivity in critical infrastructure.
No Utility-Scale Impact, No Public Outages
The event did not cause any grid-scale disruptions. Large solar farms were unaffected. Most utility-scale systems use other vendors (e.g., SMA, Sungrow, Power Electronics), not Deye.
There were no reports of grid instability, blackouts, or generation failures linked to the event in any local newspaper or utility bulletin. That’s partly why the story remained off most public radars—it affected only behind-the-meter systems, and primarily those acquired through unofficial channels.
Conclusion: A Real Event, Misunderstood in Scope
The November 2024 inverter shutdown was real, verifiable, and widespread. But it wasn’t sabotage—it was an aggressive business move that exposed the risks of relying on cloud-linked foreign-manufactured energy gear.
And while Deye’s actions may have been legal under their own terms of service, the lack of transparency and the power to deactivate critical infrastructure remotely alarmed many in the U.S. energy sector.
No government advisory or product recall has been issued as of this writing. But the debate over supply chain sovereignty in clean energy is no longer hypothetical. It’s already happened.
Dave Soulia | FYIVT
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