IN Brief:
- DOE’s Securing Solar for the Grid programme is focused on cybersecurity across solar equipment, communications, and supply chains.
- Four national laboratories are leading work on standards, testing procedures, cyber tools, and training.
- The programme is aimed at making solar PV and other distributed energy resources easier to integrate securely at scale.
The U.S. Department of Energy is advancing a broader standards and testing push for solar cybersecurity through its Securing Solar for the Grid programme, as inverter-based resources take on a larger operational role across both distribution and bulk power systems.
The S2G programme is structured as a national-laboratory effort focused on the cybersecurity maturity of solar technologies, including field equipment, digital supply chains, and grid facilities. DOE says the work is intended to close gaps in standards, best practice, testing, and analysis for solar photovoltaic systems and other distributed energy resources. Four laboratories are involved in the programme: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Idaho National Laboratory.
The central technical objective is the development of a national cybersecurity certification standard for distributed energy resources, combined with alignment to existing cybersecurity guidance so solar and other inverter-based resources can be integrated more securely and at lower compliance cost. DOE says expected outputs include requirements standards, best practices, equipment testing procedures, assessment tools, cyber tools, and education and workforce training materials.
The work sits alongside NREL’s wider standards programme, which spans cybersecurity standards for distributed energy resources, IEEE 1547 interconnection work, and technical material for utilities and grid operators managing solar, storage, electric vehicles, and other communications-enabled resources on the network edge. NREL’s utility resources also point to a growing body of work around supply-chain cybersecurity, photovoltaic plant operations, and certification recommendations for grid-edge devices and inverter-based resources.
As the installed base of digitally connected solar and DER equipment grows, the security question is no longer limited to site controls or plant architecture. It now extends into device communications, interoperability, certification, and supply-chain assurance. Further detail and technical resources are available on the S2G programme page.
