U.S. Warns of Hidden Radios in Solar-Powered Highway Infrastructure

U.S. officials are warning that solar-powered highway infrastructure, including electric vehicle chargers, roadside weather stations, and traffic cameras, may contain hidden radios embedded in batteries and inverters, raising national security concerns.

The advisory, issued by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on August 20, cautioned that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered in some foreign-manufactured power inverters and battery management systems. While the advisory did not name a source country, many of these components are produced in China.

Officials fear the undocumented devices could enable remote tampering or data theft if exploited by hostile actors. Concerns intensified earlier this year when experts found rogue communication devices in Chinese-made inverters and batteries, and unexplained components were reported in imported equipment for Denmark’s energy network.

The FHWA advisory warned that U.S. highway infrastructure, from traffic cameras and weather stations to visitor facilities and EV chargers, could be vulnerable to simultaneous outages or covert data breaches.

To mitigate risks, the FHWA urged authorities to inventory inverters nationwide, use spectrum analysis tools to detect unauthorized communications, disable or remove hidden radios, and ensure network segmentation for critical systems.

The alert comes as Washington steps up scrutiny of Chinese technology in U.S. infrastructure. The Chinese Embassy in Washington dismissed the warnings, accusing the U.S. of “distortion and smear” of China’s role in energy development. Meanwhile, U.S. regulators are also targeting Chinese vehicles, with rules finalized in January set to bar nearly all Chinese-made cars and trucks from the American market by 2026 due to data security concerns.

The new advisory underscores growing unease over vulnerabilities in clean energy and transport infrastructure that could be exploited in geopolitical conflicts.

Security warnings about embedded components elevate supply-chain provenance to a national-security concern, and that changes renewable equipment sourcing, cybersecurity disclosure and CSDDD-adjacent due diligence overnight. Our supply-chain-and-operations and sustainability-due-diligence teams help clients evaluate what these concerns mean for supply-chain diligence and disclosure narrative.