Cybersecurity continues to grow in importance for solar asset owners. While increasingly sophisticated attacks target our sector, regulators are not standing idle. This April, the European Commission moved to cut funding for solar projects it deems insecure1. In parallel, the implementation of NIS2 gives regulators powerful new enforcement tools that can lead non-compliant players to serious financial and operational consequences. In this article, Uri Sadot, Managing Director of SolarDefend and Chair of the Digitalisation Workstream at SolarPower Europe, explains where those risks sit and what action asset owners must take.
In recent years, renewable energy has moved from being an ‘additional infrastructure’ to being ‘critical infrastructure’. This happened because renewables reached a critical mass. Last June, solar energy alone became the main source of electricity in Europe2, for the first time. As reliance on solar assets grows, the focus at a policy level now shifts from how much energy is produced to how reliably it can be depended upon.
This shift is creating new regulatory challenges around how to ensure this new infrastructure class is secured from cyberattacks. It is also sharpening focus on energy sovereignty, with policymakers increasingly aware of the need to build reliable energy supplies that do not rely too heavily on single-source geographies like China.