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 demand: upside and substitution?
…the silver contacts in solar cells with copper contacts, which have 99% lower metals costs, but 3-7x higher manufacturing costs, compared to the easy screen-printing methods used in today’s silver…
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…
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: 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…
Cyanide production: the economics?
…NaCN can easily be double normal levels. This matters for the gold and silver mining industries. Gold and silver form soluble coordination complexes with cyanide ions, which in turn makes…
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…