the research consultancy for energy technologies
…the West, while cash manufacturing costs are c60-75% lower again, which is relevant amidst China’s history of overbuilding capacity in other value chains such as solar and PV silicon. We…
…our assessment (page 3). Materials are more challenging, and we map out the total demand pull on global steel, copper, silicon, fiberglass and carbon fiber; and we also discuss the…
…Ammonia, Carbon Fiber, Cement, Copper, Cyanides, Desalination, Glass, H2O2, Hydrogen, Industrial Gases, Lithium Batteries, Methanol, NaOH/Cl2, Nitric Acid, Paper, Plastics, Silicon, Silver, Steel, Wood Products. As a rule of thumb,…
…more materials becomes harder. Unfortunately solar panels do not grow on trees. Building more solar requires building more PV silicon, or silver, or copper production facilities. These are also capital…
…will scale up. But the trajectory will not be a straight line. We have recently seen share prices crushed in offshore wind (forewarned here) or PV silicon (forewarned here). Active…
…solar panel is about 65% glass, 15% aluminium, c10% polymers (mainly EVA encapsulants and PVF back-sheet), c3% copper. Photovoltaic silicon is only 5% of the panel by mass, but about…
…in its own right, to etch silicon chips, metals and blow insulation foams. This economic model captures the production of hydrogen fluoride from acid-grade fluorspar and sulfuric acid. We think…
…the most resilient polymers in the world (page 2). Yet they are overlooked. When you think about the materials in solar panels, you are primarily going to think about silicon,…
…example, PV silicon, carbon fiber, other metals (see below). This is why higher gas/energy prices or higher CO2 prices mechanically translate into mild re-inflation for wind and solar in our…
…value chains that truly are CO2 intensive (i.e., emissions are above 20 tons/ton or even 100 tons/ton). This includes PV silicon and silver for solar panels; carbon fiber and rare…