On 28 July the FCC added foreign-produced connected power inverters to its Covered List, acting on an interagency national security determination issued the day before (FCC notice).
The mechanism is equipment authorization. New models cannot get it, and without it they cannot be imported, marketed, or sold in the US. Models already authorized keep their authorizations and can continue shipping absent further FCC action, and nothing already installed is touched.
Scope turns on connectivity: the rule captures DC-AC conversion devices with remote communication, control, or monitoring capability, so hardwired and air-gapped variants fall outside it. "Foreign-produced" is a production-location test, which means a US-built unit meeting the domestic content threshold qualifies as exempt.
The constraint lands at the system layer. Cell-only supply routes into the US are untouched by this action; turnkey AC-integrated systems now carry an authorization gate at the PCS.
No public source quantifies affected volume or cost pass-through. Treat any impact number circulating this week as inference.
Conditional approval: Model-specific exemption via DHS or Dept. of War. Requires corporate structure, foreign ownership and supply-chain disclosure, plus a plan to establish or expand US manufacturing (Wiley Rein). No approvals or denials reported yet.
Software waiver: Blanket FCC waiver covers firmware/software updates on previously authorized units through at least 1 Jan 2029. Hardware changes still need a product-specific waiver.
Domestic exemption threshold: 65% domestic content through 2028, rising to 75%.
Listing cadence: Drones (Dec 2025) → routers (Mar 2026) → inverters (Jul 2026). Same procedural template each time. DJI's Ninth Circuit challenge to the drone listing is pending.
Who this reaches: Huawei and Sungrow held 55% of global inverter shipments in 2024 (Wood Mackenzie); Chinese integrators took 76% of global BESS share in 2025 (Energy-Storage.News). BESS is now 42% of Sungrow revenue.
Evidence basis: DoE review of 30 Chinese inverters (Jan 2026) found no malicious hardware. The determination rests on connectivity as architectural risk, not on found artifacts.