A national security crisis could occur due to a high percentage of China-made inverters installed in Taiwan’s solar energy systems, and lawmakers should keep the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) in check over the issue, an information security expert said on Friday.
National Cheng Kung University electrical engineering professor Li Jung-shian (李忠憲) said in a post on his Facebook page that although laws specifically state that key infrastructure may not contain devices or equipment that would endanger national security, inverters — devices that convert direct electricity generated by solar panels into alternating electricity used by power grids — made by China-based Huawei Technologies Co were predominantly installed in Taiwan’s solar energy systems.
“Power facilities are key infrastructure,” Li said. “Since the equipment made by Huawei is cheaper than devices manufactured by Taiwan’s Delta Electronics, and the MODA does not ban the use of devices made by Huawei, people continue using them after taking the costs into account,” he said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
However, it is not clear what Huawei’s inverters could do in crucial moments, he said.
“National security requires high standards and costs. Legislators who are concerned about national security issues should ask Taipower and the Administration for Cyber Security at the ministry how they plan to handle inverters made by Huawei,” he said. “The ministry receives more than NT$20 billion [US$627.9 million] in funding per year, and it should resolve this type of issues.”
The government should have either a white list or a blacklist of Chinese products, so that people know what to or not to use, Li said.
Without a list, the ministry is practically encouraging everyone to find the cheapest inverters to use, he said.
“Taiwan is expanding the development of green energy. If green energy cannot be used in key moments, I am afraid that the entire Taiwan, including the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, would be in a miserable condition,” Li said.
“If solar energy systems with Chinese inverters generate about 5 percent of the nation’s electricity, and the inverters make it possible to monitor the operation of the system remotely, the system could be set to shut down simultaneously,” Lin said. “Other power generators can shut down as well, and this is a serious national security problem.”
In 2021, inverters made by Huawei were reported to have been installed to the solar panels on top of a building in the Legislative Yuan, which generated concerns about information security breaches.
The Legislative Yuan at the time said its solar energy systems had been procured in April 2017 in accordance with relevant regulations. The inverters were later removed.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS