Thursday, 6 August 2026

New models of solar inverters and battery storage equipment assembled outside the country will not receive certification unless they satisfy fresh national security criteria, ESS News reported, after the US Federal Communications Commission tightened the rules covering grid-connected power electronics.

Already-authorized hardware stays on the market. An FCC clarification cited by ESS News confirmed the measure reaches only new equipment authorizations, and certified foreign-made inverters do not have to be pulled.

What decides an application is where the unit is finally put together, not who owns the manufacturer, according to ESS News. Any inverter or storage model with final assembly abroad must clear the security criteria before certification.

The FCC's argument centers on the communications layer inside smart inverters. Wireless links and remote firmware updates could let foreign actors change how equipment operates or shut off solar installations from a distance, with consequences for critical infrastructure, the commission said, per ESS News.

Domestic manufacturers supply about 7% of the inverter market, ESS News reported, leaving foreign suppliers with the remaining 93%.

A Department of Energy assessment earlier in the year looked at 30 Chinese-made inverters and turned up no conclusive evidence of hidden malicious hardware, ESS News reported. The certification block rests instead on what the devices can do remotely once connected.

Since the restriction applies only to new authorizations, installed fleets and previously certified models can still be sold. The pressure falls on updated equipment: each new abroad-assembled inverter or storage model has to meet the security requirements first.

Iran and Oman have reached the "final stages" of an agreement to establish a commercial route in the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran's state media said Wednesday, as reported by Semafor.

Analysts cautioned that the arrangement was unlikely to settle the broader disputes driving the conflict, according to Semafor.

The negotiations sit against a standing threat from Tehran to strike Gulf nations if Washington launches new strikes, Reuters reported.

The route talks are described by Tehran's state media as close to conclusion, though the terms of the arrangement were set out only as being in their final stages.

House Oversight Committee Democrats have written to the Treasury, Energy and State departments seeking an accounting of the USD 13 billion that Trump said the US has collected from selling Venezuelan oil, Semafor reported.

Treasury has already given the panel's Democrats a partial answer. The department told them it "custodies these funds for the benefit of the Venezuelan people" and would release the money for "approved purposes," according to Semafor.

A US official described the custodial arrangement in operational terms, saying the US government has been working with the Rodriguez government since January to disperse funds for official government expenditures such as payroll.

The volumes behind that revenue have risen sharply. Venezuela's oil exports have increased by 46% since January, Energy spokesperson Ben Dietderich told Semafor last week. Production over the same stretch is up 27%, according to Dietderich.

The letters put three departments on the record over the same pool of money: Treasury as the stated custodian, Energy as the agency citing the export and production figures, and State.