It Happened: FCC Adds Foreign-Produced Power Inverters to the Covered List

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On July 28, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission’s (the “Commission” or “FCC”) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (the “Bureau”) released Public Notice DA 26-786,[1] adding foreign-produced power inverters to the Covered List on a national security determination[2] transmitted the previous day by a White House-convened Executive Branch interagency body. The same notice added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices, defined as mobile robots such as humanoids and quadrupeds.

We wrote on July 22[3] that the Covered List was the likely mechanism and that the drone and router listings supplied the template. That is what happened. Early coverage, however, has overstated some effects and missed others. What follows is the operative scope, read against the released text and the guidance annex.

What the Listing Does

Covered List equipment is prohibited from receiving FCC equipment authorization,[4] which most electronic devices require before importation, marketing, or sale in the United States. The practical effect is a bar on new foreign-produced inverter models entering the U.S. market. Three points deserve emphasis because they are being reported loosely.

First, the action is prospective as to market access. The FCC’s fact sheet[5] states that the listing does not prohibit the import, sale, or marketing of previously authorized models, does not affect devices already purchased, and does not affect federal sales or use.

Second, the listing does not itself prohibit operating or interconnecting an installed inverter. Reporting suggesting that projects relying on foreign inverters cannot lawfully energize conflates equipment authorization with operating authority. The regime runs to authorization, importation, and marketing. It does not confer or withdraw interconnection rights.

Third, the listing is country-neutral in form. “Foreign-produced” means an article that does not qualify as a “domestic end product” under 48 C.F.R. § 25.101(a),[6] the Buy American standard: the article must be manufactured in the United States, and the cost of domestic components must exceed sixty-five percent (65%) of the cost of all components through 2028, rising to seventy-five percent (75%) in 2029. A U.S.-branded inverter built abroad is covered. A foreign-owned manufacturer’s U.S.-built unit may not be, if the content math works. Whether the off-the-shelf content waiver at 41 U.S.C. § 1907[7] travels with the definition here is not addressed.

The List Entry Contains No Transition Period

The determination says producers who obtain Conditional Approvals may continue receiving FCC authorization “during the transition period.” That phrase does not appear in the operative entry. Appendix A[8] adds a single line: “Foreign-produced power inverters, except power inverters which have been granted a Conditional Approval by DoW or DHS.”[9] One exception, and it carries no date.

The contrast with the drone entry[10] is instructive. That entry carries four exceptions, two running on a clock to January 1, 2028, and has been amended repeatedly since December 2025, most recently on July 21, 2026, to carve out toy drones. Nothing comparable appears for inverters.

One date does exist, and it runs the other way. The guidance annex[11] requires Conditional Approval applications to be submitted by January 1, 2028. That is a deadline for entering the exemption pathway, not a delay in the prohibition. The prohibition operates now; the escape hatch closes then. The drone history shows these entries do get amended, so a carve-out could still be added. Do not plan around one.

The Connectivity Element May Be Narrower Than Assumed

The determination defines “power inverter” conjunctively.[12] The device must (a) convert DC to AC or AC to DC, including microinverters, string inverters, central inverters, and hybrid battery-based inverters, and (b) contain components enabling remote communication, control, sensing, data collection, or monitoring through Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, or other similar connections. The fact sheet calls the new category “connected power inverters.”[13] Prong (b) is a limitation, not a description.

That matters because utility-scale equipment frequently communicates with plant SCADA over fiber or hardwired Ethernet rather than over any of the three listed media. The companion determination issued the same day by the same body is the most useful interpretive evidence available. Its definition of “advanced robotic devices”[14] requires a component providing network connectivity “(wired or wireless, including Bluetooth/WiFi, cellular, or satellite)” at speeds of at least 200 kbps. The drafters said “wired or wireless” expressly where they meant both and set a throughput floor. The inverter definition does neither. It lists three wireless media and closes with “other similar connections.”

That contrast supports reading “other similar connections” to mean connections similar in kind to the three listed, all of which are wireless. This is a reading, not a holding, and no agency has confirmed it. But it separates a category capturing nearly every modern inverter from one capturing only those with a wireless interface, and for a specific model it is worth developing rather than conceding.

A related question runs to integrated storage products, where identifying the relevant end product for the domestic content test inside a containerized BESS enclosure is not obvious from the determination.

The Firmware Restriction, and the Same-Day Waiver

This part reaches installed fleets rather than new procurement, and it has been widely missed even though the Commission resolved most of it the same day. Under 47 C.F.R. §§ 2.932(b) and 2.1043(b),[15] permissive changes are unavailable for equipment prohibited from authorization under 47 C.F.R. § 2.903. If previously authorized foreign-produced inverters are covered equipment, those provisions restrict post-authorization software and firmware changes to models already in the field.

The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (“OET”) had confronted this twice before, waiving the prohibition for foreign-produced drones in January 2026 and routers in March 2026, then extending and broadening both in May 2026.[16] Its reasoning was that cutting off security patches to deployed equipment would undercut the security purpose of the listing.

OET addressed this on July 28 in Public Notice DA 26-789, released alongside the listing.[17] OET waived the Class I and Class II permissive change prohibitions for covered power inverters and covered advanced robotic devices authorized before July 28, 2026, permitting software and firmware updates that mitigate harm to U.S. consumers, including updates that patch vulnerabilities and maintain functionality, through at least January 1, 2029.

The waiver confirms the reach of the underlying rule. OET states that applying sections 2.932(b) and 2.1043(b) to the new listings would prohibit permissive changes even to devices authorized before July 28, for both Class I and Class II changes, because previously authorized inverters are now covered equipment. The Bureau clarification that entity-based rules are not implicated, because this equipment is identified by place of production, does not reach the equipment-based permissive change bar. If it did, no waiver would have been necessary.[18]

Three limits survive and belong in supplier conversations. The waiver runs to software and firmware only, so hardware permissive changes remain prohibited, which matters over a plant life in which component obsolescence is a certainty. It covers only models authorized before July 28, 2026. And it expires January 1, 2029, unless extended, as the drone and router waivers were.

Diligence Points on Authorization Status

Section 2.903 reaches equipment that would otherwise require certification, equipment subject to Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity procedures, and equipment otherwise exempt. Certified equipment carries an FCC ID in a public database; equipment authorized by declaration does not. For those models, confirming prior authorization is a document collection exercise, not a lookup.

Buyers also overlook a representation that already exists. Section 2.911(d)(5)(i)[19] requires every authorization applicant to certify that the equipment is not prohibited as covered equipment. For an inverter, that certification embeds a domestic end product conclusion and, on the narrower reading of prong (b), a connectivity conclusion. Suppliers are making statements to the Commission about the same facts buyers are diligencing. Ask for them.

Conditional Approvals Are an Onshoring Test, Not a Security Audit

The Department of War (“DoW”) or the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) may determine that a given inverter, or class of inverters, does not pose the identified risks, which exempts it from the listing. The guidance annex sets out what an application requires, and it does not match how the process has been described.

Applications are due by January 1, 2028,[20] and call for three categories of information. Corporate structure: complete ownership, beneficial owners at five percent (5%) or greater, board and executive nationality, and any foreign government ownership, control, influence, or financing. Supply chain: a detailed bill of materials, country of origin for every component and for the design, software, and firmware, ownership of intellectual property and of software updates, concentration by value and volume, and sole-source suppliers with contingency plans. U.S. manufacturing plan: a time-bound plan to establish or expand U.S. manufacturing.

That third category is the operative one. The annex asks for committed and planned capital expenditure over one (1) to five (5) years, expected hiring, facility expansion in square feet, a dedicated point of contact accountable for the plan, and quarterly status reports to the granting agency. Applicants with prior approvals must report progress against what they previously promised.

What the annex does not contain is any pathway premised on security. There is no code audit, no third-party firmware attestation, and no mechanism for showing that a device cannot be remotely manipulated. Reporting to the contrary is inaccurate. An applicant establishes that it poses no unacceptable risk by disclosing its supply chain and committing to move production to the United States.

Two features matter for drafting. Decisions are discretionary and final, and submission does not guarantee approval. And an approval is revocable: applications require an officer certification that the information is complete and accurate and that material changes will be disclosed, and an applicant that knowingly violates the terms or materially misrepresents information loses the approval and is barred from reapplying. A Conditional Approval is a conditional status carrying continuing obligations, not a permanent clearance.

Under the drone precedent, approved devices are published[21] by name as determinations issue. The Bureau also notes the availability of staff guidance to certification bodies, test labs, and applicants, and names a contact.[22]

What to Do Now

• Run the definition before assuming coverage. Confirm whether a specified model has a wireless interface at all and document the finding. The answer may take the unit outside prong (b).
• Confirm the authorization pathway and status for every specified model and collect the supporting records and any Section 2.911 certifications rather than a supplier statement.
• Reprice and re-sequence procurement where a specified model is covered and has no Conditional Approval. There is no grace period in the list entry.
• Ask each foreign supplier whether it intends to file by January 1, 2028, and what its onshoring plan looks like. A supplier that will not commit to U.S. manufacturing is telling you its models will not clear.
• Treat a Conditional Approval as revocable. Supply agreements should require the supplier to maintain it and to give prompt notice of termination or material change, and should allocate the consequences if it lapses.
• Confirm with suppliers that firmware support continues under the July 28 waiver, and allocate the residual risk: hardware permissive changes are not waived, and the waiver expires January 1, 2029.
• Test change-in-law, force majeure, and trade restriction clauses against the actual mechanism, which is denial of equipment authorization rather than a tariff or customs prohibition. Clauses keyed to duties or import bans may not reach it.
• Assess whether a model substitution constitutes a material modification requiring interconnection restudy and sequence any swap against that timeline.
• Monitor for a hardware permissive change waiver, for extension of the software waiver beyond January 1, 2029, for published Conditional Approvals, and for amendments to the list entry.

We are monitoring the docket and will report as the exempt set, the waiver posture, and the definitional questions develop.

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[1] Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Public Notice, DA 26-786 (rel. July 28, 2026), WC Docket No. 18-89, ET Docket No. 21-232, EA Docket No. 21-233. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-786A1.pdf

[2] National Security Determination on the Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Power Inverters (July 27, 2026), attached as Appendix B to DA 26-786 (Power Inverters NSD).

[3] Brian J. Nese and Zack Taylor, “U.S. Reportedly Drafting Restrictions on Foreign-Made Inverters: What Solar and Storage Buyers Should Know Now,” Stoel Rives LLP (July 22, 2026). https://www.stoel.com/insights/publications/u-s-reportedly-drafting-restrictions-on-foreign-made-inverters-what-solar-and-storage-buyers-should-know-now

[4] 47 C.F.R. § 2.903. Subsection (a) states the prohibition; subsection (b) identifies the equipment reached. See also 47 C.F.R. §§ 2.1204 (import conditions), 2.803 (marketing).

[5] FCC Fact Sheet, “FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign-Produced Advanced Robotic Devices and Power Inverters” (July 28, 2026). https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-423682A1.pdf

[6] 48 C.F.R. § 25.101(a). The domestic content threshold is 65 percent for items delivered in calendar years 2024 through 2028 and 75 percent beginning in calendar year 2029.

[7] 41 U.S.C. § 1907; see 48 C.F.R. § 25.101(a)(2)(i) (waiving the domestic content test for acquisitions of commercially available off-the-shelf items).

[8] DA 26-786, App. A (Covered List, updated July 28, 2026). The current list is published at https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist.

[9] The FCC’s materials, including the Covered List entry, the National Security Determinations, and the guidance annex, refer to the Department of War (DoW). Executive Order 14347 of Sept. 5, 2025, “Restoring the United States Department of War,” 90 Fed. Reg. 43893 (Sept. 10, 2025), authorized “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense in non-statutory contexts and directed executive agencies to recognize it. The statutory name remains the Department of Defense unless and until Congress acts. This article uses DoW to track the agency designation used in the materials discussed.

[10] Id. The drone entry was added December 22, 2025, and has been updated January 7, March 18, June 15, and July 21, 2026.

[11] Annex A: Guidance on Submissions for Conditional Approval for Foreign-Produced Power Inverters Subject to the FCC’s Covered List (July 27, 2026) (Inverter Guidance Annex).

[12] Power Inverters NSD at 4 (Definitions).

[13] FCC Fact Sheet, supra note 5.

[14] National Security Determination on the Threat Posed by Foreign-Produced Advanced Robotic Devices (July 27, 2026), attached as Appendix C to DA 26-786, at 4 (Definitions).

[15] 47 C.F.R. §§ 2.932(b), 2.1043(b), as revised by Protecting Against National Security Threats to the Communications Supply Chain Through the Equipment Authorization Program, Second Report and Order, FCC 25-71 (adopted Oct. 28, 2025), 90 Fed. Reg. 53227 (Nov. 25, 2025).

[16] Office of Engineering and Technology, Public Notice, DA 26-69 (rel. Jan. 21, 2026) (UAS); DA 26-286 (rel. Mar. 23, 2026) (routers); DA 26-454 (rel. May 8, 2026) (extending both to at least January 1, 2029, and adding Class II permissive changes).

[17] Office of Engineering and Technology, Public Notice, DA 26-789 (rel. July 28, 2026), ET Docket No. 21-232 (waiving Class I and Class II permissive change prohibitions for covered power inverters and covered advanced robotic devices authorized before July 28, 2026, through at least January 1, 2029).

[18] DA 26-786 at 4 & n.18.

[19] 47 C.F.R. § 2.911(d)(5)(i).

[20] Inverter Guidance Annex, Information Requested. The onshoring plan requirements appear at § 3.

[21] Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Public Notice, DA 26-253 (rel. Mar. 18, 2026) (first published UAS Conditional Approvals).

[22] DA 26-786 at 4 (staff guidance under 47 C.F.R. §§ 0.191, 0.31(i)).