silver

Chinese researchers have developed a process to boost the efficiency and bifacial performance of TOPCon solar cells while reducing silver consumption.

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.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Newcastle have found that “hidden contaminants” in TOPCon and HJT modules can lead to a power loss of up to 16%.

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

Reducing silver consumption remains one of the key trends in the solar industry, such as going busbar-less, highlights the ITRPV.

Australian startup SunDrive Solar has revealed that it has undergone a restructuring of the company, resulting in job cuts, as it looks to “sharpen focus on solar”.

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.