silver

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.

Solar manufacturer Qcells has partnered with Lumet, a specialist in solar cell metallisation technology, to reduce the cost of its cell production lines.

The global price of silver has continued to rise, with the average price increasing to RMB8,211/kilogram (US$32.03/ounce), a historical high.

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.

As the PV industry reckons with its social and environmental impact and the byproducts of its processes, beyond the near-term questions over provenance and manufacturing ethics, concerns at the horizon of a module’s lifespan are coming more and more into focus.  

Newly granted patents for solar cell architecture that reduces silver costs and increases power generation could see the new technology draw closer to commercialisation.

A secure transition to net zero emissions globally will require countries to diversify and expand the production of solar modules, whose supply chains are heavily concentrated in China, according to new research from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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.