copper

Solar PV will play a major role in global demand for critical minerals in the coming decades, according to a report from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaics Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS).

UNSW has achieved a 12.4% efficiency and record voltage for CZTS solar cells by reducing defects through improved copper-sulphur bonding.

The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) and the Copper Mark have signed an agreement to pursue “responsible production and sourcing of copper across the solar energy value chain”.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed AU$25.3 million (US$16.53 million) in funding to support PV cell technology startup SunDrive Solar's continued development of copper-based solar cell technology.

Wood Mackenzie has warned of a supply bottleneck as the renewable energy shift drives a spike in global copper demand over the next decade.

PV Talk: AIKO's chief scientist, Yongqian Wang, tells PV Tech Premium that copper is now a “highly suitable” alternative to silver.

Fraunhofer ISE has developed a solar cell which uses “one-tenth” of the amount of silver as a standard cell.

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.