gunDriller
18th November 2014, 06:50 AM
I was curious, how much Silver is used in each Solar Panel ?
So I did a web-search.
Ballpark number ==> 20 grams of Silver per panel, I will guess that they're talking about panels that are 24 x 48 though sometimes 'standard' panels can run a little larger (25 x 49).
"Each crystalline silicon solar panel produced (about 85% of the market) uses the equivalent of 20 grams of silver per panel."
http://www.pv-tech.org/guest_blog/case_study_of_a_growth_driver_silver_use_in_solar
"This may or may not seem like much, but in 2000, only 1 million ounces of silver were used in PV fabrication and by 2008 this had increased to 19 million and then increased again to 64.5 million ounces in 2013. By 2015, the market for silver use in PV fabrication is forecast to be 100 million ounces – roughly 10% of total silver demand."
http://www.pv-magazine.com/archive/articles/beitrag/silver-lining-for-cost-savings-_100010408/572/#axzz3JQlwnK5G
interesting - tin as a replacement for Silver.
"Casey Research states that since the year 2000, silver used in solar panel production has increased by an average of 50% per year. In 2011, the demand from the PV sector accounted for 11% of total industrial demand for silver (excluding jewelry) as the consultancy states. Silver prices are expected to remain bullish in the months to come with prices already having gone up in the beginning of this year. The unpredictable nature of silver prices has however led to the search for alternatives."
What, instead of loading up at the lower prices ?
"Toor brings attention to Meyer Burger Technology’s group member Roth & Rau AG developing a new tool which uses nickel in busbar metallization for electrical contacting of solar cells. The new system, named Helia, does not completely eliminate silver but promises that silver savings between 50% and 70% can be achieved, thereby reducing overall production costs of solar cells. The Helia system coats the solar cells with nickel in a shortened system configuration to form the front and rear busbars via a sputtering process."
So I did a web-search.
Ballpark number ==> 20 grams of Silver per panel, I will guess that they're talking about panels that are 24 x 48 though sometimes 'standard' panels can run a little larger (25 x 49).
"Each crystalline silicon solar panel produced (about 85% of the market) uses the equivalent of 20 grams of silver per panel."
http://www.pv-tech.org/guest_blog/case_study_of_a_growth_driver_silver_use_in_solar
"This may or may not seem like much, but in 2000, only 1 million ounces of silver were used in PV fabrication and by 2008 this had increased to 19 million and then increased again to 64.5 million ounces in 2013. By 2015, the market for silver use in PV fabrication is forecast to be 100 million ounces – roughly 10% of total silver demand."
http://www.pv-magazine.com/archive/articles/beitrag/silver-lining-for-cost-savings-_100010408/572/#axzz3JQlwnK5G
interesting - tin as a replacement for Silver.
"Casey Research states that since the year 2000, silver used in solar panel production has increased by an average of 50% per year. In 2011, the demand from the PV sector accounted for 11% of total industrial demand for silver (excluding jewelry) as the consultancy states. Silver prices are expected to remain bullish in the months to come with prices already having gone up in the beginning of this year. The unpredictable nature of silver prices has however led to the search for alternatives."
What, instead of loading up at the lower prices ?
"Toor brings attention to Meyer Burger Technology’s group member Roth & Rau AG developing a new tool which uses nickel in busbar metallization for electrical contacting of solar cells. The new system, named Helia, does not completely eliminate silver but promises that silver savings between 50% and 70% can be achieved, thereby reducing overall production costs of solar cells. The Helia system coats the solar cells with nickel in a shortened system configuration to form the front and rear busbars via a sputtering process."