Silver’s exceptional electrical and thermal conductivity make it a crucial material in solar photovoltaic (PV) production. However, record high prices are forcing major players in the solar energy sector to find more cost-effective alternatives.
In one Report September 2025BNEF analysts note that silver represents about 14 percent of total solar panel production costs, up from 5 percent in 2023. At the time, silver traded between $42 and $46 per ounce.
Since then, the price of the white metal has exploded, reaching an all-time high of US$93.77 on Wednesday (14 January). That is double the level in September, and an increase of almost 200 percent compared to the year before.
In an industry that is already facing fierce competition, such a large jump in price for an important component is unsustainable. In response, top manufacturers in China such as LONGi Green Energy Technology (SHA:601012) we turn to base metals and technological innovations to help control input costs for solar panels.
“The exponential growth of solar energy has made the sector one of the largest industrial consumers of the metal, intensifying competition with other strategic applications such as electronics and investments,” wrote Antonio Di Giacomo, senior market analyst at XS.com, in a prepared report for the Investing News Network. “This imbalance between supply and demand has increased costs and put pressure on margins for solar panel manufacturers.”
Solar panel manufacturers are bypassing silver
China dominates and represents the global solar PV industry more than 80 percent of global manufacturing capacity across the supply chain, including polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules.
At the beginning of January, Bloomberg reports this that LONGi Green Energy plans to begin mass production of solar cells using base metals instead of silver from the second quarter in an effort to reduce costs.
Di Giacomo believes that because LONGi Green Energy is one of the solar industry’s technological leaders, the move away from silver marks a major turning point for the sector.
Bloomberg notes that the company has joined other Chinese solar makers looking to sidestep silver’s price volatility. In December, JinkoSolar Holding (NYSE:JKS), headquartered in China but publicly traded in the US, said it planned to roll out large-scale production of solar panels using base metals. Plus, smaller company Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy (SHA:600732) produces 6.5 gigawatt solar cells without silver.
“Other major manufacturers, such as JinkoSolar and AIKO Solar, are also exploring silver-free technologies or solutions that minimize the use of this metal,” said Di Giacomo. “The convergence of efforts from leading players suggests that this is not an isolated trend, but rather a structural shift in the way solar panels are designed and manufactured.”
Is copper a viable alternative to silver?
Copper is the prized favorite among the base metals for silver exchange.
While both metals have seen unprecedented price appreciation due to rising industrial demand for clean technologies and artificial intelligence, silver maintains a huge premium over copper. Currency: The price of a troy ounce of silver trades approximately 22,000 percent higher than that of a troy ounce of copper.
“Although its conductivity is slightly lower, copper is much more abundant and cheaper and is supported by a more diversified supply chain,” Di Giacomo said. “These features make it an attractive option for an industry looking to scale production without exposure to critical raw material bottlenecks.”
The red metal can be an excellent electrical conductor, but it does not match the capabilities of silver. There is also copper’s tendency to oxidize and degrade, challenging the long-term viability and reliability of copper-based solar components. For these reasons, copper dipping presents technical challenges for PV manufacturers.
One concern about replacing silver with copper is the high temperatures required in the manufacturing process of TOPCon (tunnel oxide passivated contact) cells, the technology that currently dominates the solar panel industry.
This may not be too much of a problem for LONGi Green Energy, which produces back-contact (BC) cells. The technical processes for adapting copper to this new type of solar cell architecture are much simpler compared to TOPCon cells.
“New generations of copper metallized cells are achieving efficiency levels increasingly closer to those of traditional silver-based models,” said Di Giacomo. “In some cases, improvements are even observed in mechanical strength and durability of modules, key factors for long-term solar installations and operation under demanding environmental conditions.”
BC cells are also shown to generate more energy from the same amount of sunlight compared to TOPCon cells. A white paper from a sustainable energy consultancy Renewable states Field data shows that BC modules can produce up to 11 percent more energy during their lifetime compared to TOPCon technology.
How does replacement affect silver?
In a November 2025 report, the This is reported by the Silver Institute Demand for industrial silver is expected to decline by 2 percent to 665 million ounces in 2025. One of the factors contributing to the decline is an approximately 5 percent decline in demand for silver from the solar industry, even as the number of global PV installations set a new record for the year. This is “due to a sharp decline in the amount of silver used in each module,” the company said.
“A continued reduction in silver demand in the solar sector could change market dynamics,” Di Giacomo warned.
However, at the moment it is still too early to say anything about that. First, TOPCon technology is expected to account for 70 percent of the market by 2026. The cost of manufacturing BC cells is not expected to match that of TOPCon cells until the end of the decade, says Molly Morgan, senior research analyst at CRU Group. This is reported by pvmagazine.
“Therefore, we believe that we could see a coexistence of the two technologies between 2028 and 2030,” she said.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, have no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the views of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence.
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