Longi Shunning Silver For Solar Panels

Chinese solar panel manufacturing goliath Longi has reportedly decided to cease using silver in the manufacturing of its back-contact solar cells.

Why Is Longi Forgoing Silver?

Cost. Silver has been having an extended moment and the firm along with other manufacturers are taking a major hit.

Silver is mainly used in a highly conductive paste that forms ‘fingers’, ‘busbars’ and back-contacts on solar cells. And silver is expensive; currently around (AUD) $3.76 a gram.  When I wrote about silver in solar panels last June, it was $1.59 a gram — which even at that point was high.

Around 20 grams of silver is used in a solar panel according to various sources. When you consider how cheap solar panels are currently (e.g. $120 for a decent budget 440W panel – and that’s retail); the silver represents a big chunk of the bill of materials.

Longi says it will turn to base metals as replacement, and start using them in the second quarter of this year.

How Much Will Longi Save?

Avoiding the use of silver will save what may appear to be a miserable 0.02 yuan per watt. This is approximately 0.43 Australian cents at current exchange rates.

But think volume.

In 2024, Longi’s total shipments of HPBC (Back-Contact) modules — in which the firm says the silver is easy to replace — reached more than 17 GW for the full year. So, applying the savings to those figures:

17 GW = 17,000,000,000 watts
Savings per watt = 0.043c
Overall savings =  (AUD) $73,100,000

It’s a significant amount.

Solar Industry Slurping Up The World’s Silver

According to the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), there was 6,577 tons of photovoltaic silver demand in 2024 and the solar industry accounted for 19% of worldwide silver metal demand last year.

That demand may only grow. A study published just a few days ago suggests by 2030, supply may meet only 62–70 % of silver demand; which the authors project to be 48,000–54,000 tonnes per year.

“The solar industry is expected to be the fastest-growing source of silver demand, reaching 10,000–14,000 t/y (29–41 % of supply),” states the study. “Despite slower growth, demand from competing sectors may rise to 38,000–40,000 t/y.”

But Longi isn’t the only manufacturer ditching silver, and there has been solid progress in more efficient solar cell materials recovery processes — so perhaps that scenario may not eventuate.

Other News From Longi

In November 2025, we reported Longi was entering the energy storage market through acquisition of another company, Canada’s PotisEdge. Then later in November, Longi formally announced a “collaboration” with the firm.

“PotisEdge has maintained a safety record of “zero thermal runaway” incidents across more than 12 GWh of cumulative energy storage and power battery systems over the past decade,” stated Longi. ” This will provide solid technical support for LONGi’s energy storage solutions.”

In moving forward, the firm recently said it will focus on the domestic market as well as Europe, the US and Australia.

Whether “Longi” residential energy storage solutions will be on offer here isn’t clear, but PotisEdge already produces home batteries; and its ALOE Pro has been Clean Energy Council approved for use in Australia for some time.

Moving on to finance stuff, Longi’s operating revenue for Q3 2025 was RMB 18.10 billion, which was down 9.78% year-over-year. The year-to-date revenue was even worse; dropping to RMB 50.91 billion, a 13.10% decrease from the same period in 2024.

But net loss had significantly reduced (around 48% improvement from 9M 2024) and operating cash flow for the first nine months turned positive.

As to what the firm sold in the January–September period, there was 38.15 GW of wafers, 63.43 GW cells and panels, and 14.48 GW Back-Contact modules.

Founded in 2000, Longi has been active in Australia since 2016. In 2019, the firm set up a local proprietary limited company owned by the Longi Group.

The company’s panels have been popular with Australian households. This is largely thanks to their low price, while remaining a decent quality solar panel option. The Longi solar panel reviews from Australians here on SolarQuotes have generally been positive. The company has achieved an average 4.9 stars based on 3,133 Australian customer ratings overall, and 5.0 stars based on 1,081 ratings in last 12 months.

Longi is currently listed as a SolarQuotes recommended solar panel brand.