Average silver price expected to drop 2% to $21.30 per ounce this year
The US Silver Institute’s “World Silver Survey 2022” report shows that the price of the metal will fall slightly this year despite increasing demand from the PV industry.
Only5mins! – Solar sector set to slim down on silver
pv magazine speaks with Matthew Watson, president of Precious Metals Commodity Management LLC, about silver demand and availability. He says the solar industry has managed to reduce silver consumption, but it may have to do more in the future.
Only5mins! – Silver price outlook and PV industry impact
Michael DiRienzo, executive director of The Silver Institute, tells pv magazine that average silver prices will hover around $23 per ounce this year, without any anticipated supply disruptions for the solar industry.
Solar Inventions gets patent for silver-saving configurable current solar cells
Solar Inventions has patented technology that could save between $2 million and $5 million per gigawatt in solar projects, while also raising rated power output. The company has patents in the United States, China and Israel for its cell configuration.
Taiwanese consortium develops easily recyclable solar module
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and United Renewable Energy (URE) have developed a solar panel that can be easily dismantled to simplify the recycling process. They claim that 96% of the materials in the panel can be recovered, including all of the solar cells and front glass.
New study looks at Sundrive’s 25.54% silver-free heterojunction solar cell
A new scientific paper takes a closer look at the record-breaking efficiency that Australia’s Sundrive announced for a silver-free heterojunction cell in September 2021, as certified by Germany’s Institute for Solar Energy Research.
IEA-PVPS expects polysilicon prices to stabilize by end of 2023
The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) recently published a report on trends in PV applications for the 2021-22 period. Prices for polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules rose, while production capacity expanded in China and beyond.
Novel tech to recycle silver, aluminum from end-of-life solar panels
Researchers at the University of Leicester have developed a new method of extracting silver and aluminum from end-of-life PV cells using iron chloride and aluminum chloride dissolved in brines. According to them, the cheap solvents retrieve up to 95% of the metals within 10 minutes, achieving a 98% purity of silver chloride.
Heterojunction solar cells with lower silver consumption via rotary screen printing
Scientists from the Fraunhofer ISE built a bifacial heterojunction solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 21.7% via rotary screen printing. They used a machine that is able to achieve a cycle time of just 0.6 seconds per solar cell and enables a strong reduction in silver use.
Silver prices rose 22% in 2021, but slight decrease expected this year
The US-based Silver Institute’s “World Silver Survey 2022” report shows that the price of the metal will fall slightly this year, despite the global economic impact of the war in Ukraine.
