Solar contacts: silver bullet?
The front contacts in today’s solar cells are made of screen-printed silver. Thus solar cells absorbed 11% of 2021’s silver market, and growing. Solar silver contacts can be substituted with…
Silver pastes for solar contacts?
50 companies make conductive silver pastes to form electrical contacts in solar modules. This data-file tabulates the compositions of silver pastes based on patents, averaging 85% silver, 4% glass frit…
Solar surface: silver thrifting?
…kg/kW) (page 3). A silver case study. Silver intensity of the average installed solar module has recently halved. So can it halve again? Important uses of silver are in the…
Silver demand: upside and substitution?
Silver demand in energy transition will most likely tighten the global silver market by 10-30% over the course of the 2020s. This reflects upside in solar, electric vehicles, thrifting, and…
Silver and gold: the economics?
This data-file captures the marginal cost of silver and gold production, at an integrated mining-refining operation. In our base case, a 10% IRR requires a silver price of $17/Oz and…
Silver and gold: medal winners?
Gold and silver are stores of value, especially in a world of persistently high inflation and low rates. Silver is also likely to be the main bottleneck for solar in…
Silver producers: leading companies?
Half of the world’s 28kTpa global silver market is controlled by 17 public companies, with silver output ranging from 0.1 – 2.0 kTpa. This data-file is a screen of silver…
Solar contacts: silver bullet?
The front contacts in today’s solar cells are made of screen-printed silver. Thus solar cells absorbed 11% of 2021’s silver market, and growing. Silver can be substituted with copper. But…
Silver and gold: medal winners?
Gold and silver are stores of value, especially in a world of persistently high inflation and low rates. Silver is also likely to be the main bottleneck for solar in…
Solar surface: silver thrifting?
…is a case study of silver intensity in the solar industry, which halved in the past decade, and could halve again. Conclusions matter for solar companies, silver markets, other bottlenecks….