Pentagon affirms it won’t install Chinese-manufactured solar panels

The solar panels to be installed at the Pentagon will not be Chinese -manufactured, according to the Department of Defense .

Several Virginia Republican politicians expressed concern about what they said could be a threat to national security in separate communications with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week.

“The DoD will not be installing Chinese-manufactured solar panels on the Pentagon," Pentagon spokesman Robert Ditchey told the Washington Examiner. "The Department adheres to the requirements of the Buy American Act in making clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean energy procurement decisions. The Department uses a rigorous and extensive oversight process to ensure compliance with the law, domestic preference, and trade agreement partner statutes implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation and for DOD, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement."

In January, the department announced it was one of 31 government sites that would receive $104 million in Energy Department grants as a part of the administration's plan to promote clean energy, according to PBS .

Reps. Rob Wittman (R-VA), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), Ben Cline (R-VA), and Morgan Griffith (R-VA) warned in their joint letter to the secretary that they were "deeply concerned" about whether the Pentagon and Department of Energy are "demonstrating appropriate attention to the economic and national security risks posed by pursuing this initiative when Chinese solar manufacturers continue to dominate the marketplace, historically violate U.S. trade laws, and advance the surveillance activities of Chinese military and intelligence agencies."

The lawmakers claimed in their letter that eight of 10 solar panels installed in the United States are made in China.

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) sent his own letter to Austin this week expressing concern about the risk from China.

"This decision has significant implications for U.S. national security and brings into question whether American taxpayer dollars will be used to purchase solar equipment from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), our greatest economic and geopolitical rival," his letter reads .