copper

The two-pronged attack of vastly growing solar capacity and the shift to n-type technologies has converged to make silver a real pressure point for future solar manufacturing.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will invest AU$11 million (US$6.9 million) in Australian solar technology company SunDrive Solar to support the commercial scale-up of SunDrive’s novel solar cell metallisation technology.

The International Energy Agency's latest report shows that increased demand for solar PV could drive significant demand for copper worldwide.

PV Tech Premium talks to Solarcycle’s co-founders about their company’s unique ability to extract every single constituent material out of an end-of-life PV module, how solar panels are not lasting as long as people expected, the race to prevent solar waste being illegally dumped across the globe, and how modules can have a useful second life.

Australian start-up SunDrive has secured A$21 million (US$13.2 million) in a Series A fund that will help commercialise its solar technology.

Buy aluminium and steel when possible in order to accumulate stock and hedge against continued price rises for both. While the price of nickel has undergone a “short squeeze”, copper is likely to continue trading sideways in the near term and there is no immediate risk to silver supply.

Governments worldwide must ensure that there are sufficient raw materials available to solar and energy storage developers to safeguard the energy transition.

The average severity of insurance claims from the solar PV industry has increased by 87% over the past five years often as a result of extreme weather, according to new research from renewables insurance specialist GCube Underwriting.