Researchers find more than 8,500 control systems at European solar and wind sites exposed online
Spain accounts for more than a third of the exposed solar systems, and Turkey had 454, according to a Dutch study that urges operators to take admin panels offline.
Researchers have found 8,547 control systems at solar parks and wind farms in 35 European countries that can be reached from the open internet, including admin interfaces and control panels that should be hidden, according to a report by Dutch internet intelligence firm Modat and the Netherlands' National Cyber Security Centre.
Solar sites accounted for 7,942 of the exposed systems. Spain had 2,766, or 35%, followed by Greece with 1,860, Italy with 753 and Germany with 672. Hungary had 514 and Turkey 454. Wind farms accounted for 605, led by Germany and Italy. The researchers said the figures are likely an undercount.
One exposed page showed a single wind turbine's live output alongside start, stop and reset buttons. Another login page noted that its default username was "root."
"What we can map in hours, an attacker can map in hours too," said Soufian El Yadmani, Modat's founder and chief executive. The report urges operators to take admin interfaces offline immediately and to assume attackers are already inside their networks.
The report points to attacks in December 2025 that hit at least 30 wind and solar farms in Poland, which Poland's national cyber response team attributed to a group linked to Russia's Federal Security Service. Renewables generated 54% of the European Union's electricity in the second quarter of 2026.
This brief is based on reporting by Brian Publicover, published Oct. 7, 2026, in pv magazine. Read the original: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/10/07/thousands-of-european-solar-park-systems-exposed-online-say-researchers/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
