{"id":4901,"date":"2015-07-22T11:46:24","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T01:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=4901"},"modified":"2017-10-25T09:34:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T23:04:16","slug":"how-much-will-eliminating-silver-in-solar-cells-drive-costs-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/how-much-will-eliminating-silver-in-solar-cells-drive-costs-down\/","title":{"rendered":"How much will eliminating silver in solar cells drive costs down?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4906\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/silver-pv.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4906\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4906\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/silver-pv.jpg\" alt=\"silver bars and solar panels\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4906\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Solar panel manufacturing uses about 2.8 million ounces of silver for every GW of solar panels manufactured. New technology hopes to reduce this to zero.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ever considered how much the amount of silver in solar cells adds to their cost? What if silver were eliminated completely from the production of solar panels?<\/p>\n<p>The price of solar cells has already reduced considerably in recent years due to improved production efficiencies, making solar cells affordable for many. However the elimination of the high cost silver from the production would realise a long term dream of producers and make solar energy even more cheaper than it has already become.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For researchers at the Rochester R&amp;D Center of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natcoresolar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Natcore Technology Inc <\/a>have claimed that their latest proprietary laser processing technology may eliminate the need for silver in solar cells. The potential cost reduction estimates are \u2014 of course \u2014 huge, if as yet undefined.<\/p>\n<p>This is obviously a major development. An estimated 30 percent of the cost of solar cells coming from the price of silver, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/natcore-technology-develops-breakthrough-solar-cell-structure-300110833.html\" target=\"_blank\">Natcore Technology press release<\/a> earlier this month.\u00a0However with the patent submission still to be completed, details of the technology are limited. Indeed Natcore\u2019s director of research and technology, Dr. David Levy played a very straight bat.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhile we&#8217;re completing our patent submission, we&#8217;re hesitant to give more details about the new structure. All of our tests to date demonstrate that we&#8217;re on the optimum path toward very high efficiencies with manufacturing solutions that are low cost and do not require complex process equipment,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet it\u2019s clear the new technology, which is based on improvements in the silicon heterojunction (SHJ) cell structure, is a major breakthrough which will bring major price reductions. Eliminating silver in solar cells will go a long way to halving their cost, one of the stated key goals of Natcore Technology.<\/p>\n<p>So how much will the price of solar panels go down without silver in solar cells? Finn Peacock, founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\" target=\"_blank\">SolarQuotes <\/a>estimates the complete <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/how-much-do-solar-panels-cost.html\">solar panel cost<\/a> may fall by as much as 10 percent (based on a silver usage of 2.8 million ounces per Gigawatt of solar capacity). Do you agree with this estimation? Too high or too low? Either way the future of silver in solar cells looks limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever considered how much the amount of silver in solar cells adds to their cost? What if silver were eliminated completely from the production of solar panels? The price of solar cells has already reduced considerably in recent years due to improved production efficiencies, making solar cells affordable for many. However the elimination of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[509],"tags":[129,582],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-innovations","tag-cheap-solar","tag-silver-in-solar","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How much will eliminating silver in solar cells drive costs down? - SolarQuotes Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ever considered how much the amount of silver in solar cells adds to their cost? What if silver were eliminated from the production of solar panels?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/how-much-will-eliminating-silver-in-solar-cells-drive-costs-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How much will eliminating silver in solar cells drive costs down?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever considered how much the amount of silver in solar cells adds to their cost? 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How Much Funding Did SunDrive Receive And What's It For? Provided under ARENA's Advancing Renewables Program, SunDrive has been issued a $25.3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Solar Innovations&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Solar Innovations","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-innovations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"An Australian-made SunDrive solar cell.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sundrive-arena-funding.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sundrive-arena-funding.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sundrive-arena-funding.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sundrive-arena-funding.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/sundrive-arena-funding.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":97126,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-silver-reclamation-mb3354\/","url_meta":{"origin":4901,"position":1},"title":"Australian Ingenuity: Better Solar Panel Silver Recovery","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"January 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"University of Newcastle researchers state they have developed a super-efficient method for the recovery of high-grade silver from end-of-life solar panels. What Does The Silver Recovery Process Involve? The new method, described as \"fast, safe and highly effective\" uses a physical separation technique combining: Comminution \u2014 the process of reducing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Solar and the Environment&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Solar and the Environment","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-and-the-environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar panels - silver reclamation and recycling","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/solar-silver-recycling.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/solar-silver-recycling.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/solar-silver-recycling.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/solar-silver-recycling.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/solar-silver-recycling.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6290,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/hanwha-q-cells-q-antum-solar-panels-smash-record-polysilicon-efficiency\/","url_meta":{"origin":4901,"position":2},"title":"Hanwha Q Cells Q.ANTUM Solar Panels Smash Record For Polysilicon  Efficiency","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"June 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Hanwha Q Cells has smashed the record for polysilicon solar panel efficiency like a robot driving a steel fist through a fragile silicon wafer. They have achieved an efficiency of 19.5% with a standard sized panel, 1.67m by 1m in size. The module is 301 watts and Hanwha claims it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Solar Panels&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Solar Panels","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-panels-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"q-cells solar panel efficiency","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/qantum-qcells-record.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/qantum-qcells-record.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/qantum-qcells-record.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/qantum-qcells-record.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":97082,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/longi-solar-silver-mb3352\/","url_meta":{"origin":4901,"position":3},"title":"Longi Shunning Silver For Solar Panels","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"January 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Solar Panels&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Solar Panels","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-panels-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Longi ditching silver","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longi-solar-silver.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longi-solar-silver.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longi-solar-silver.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longi-solar-silver.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/longi-solar-silver.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":93710,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/australian-solar-manufacturing-mb3242\/","url_meta":{"origin":4901,"position":4},"title":"Solar Sunshot Sparking More Australian Manufacturing","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"August 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Australia's only solar panel manufacturer and several local polysilicon hopefuls have received a significant boost through the Albanese government's Solar Sunshot initiative. The $1 billion Solar Sunshot program, being delivered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), seeks to grow Australia\u2019s solar PV manufacturing industry by supporting local manufacturing innovation,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Australian solar panel factory","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/australian-solar-manufacturing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/australian-solar-manufacturing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/australian-solar-manufacturing.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/australian-solar-manufacturing.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/australian-solar-manufacturing.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":84427,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-silver-cost-mb2939\/","url_meta":{"origin":4901,"position":5},"title":"Hi-Ho Solar Silver, And Away!","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"June 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Silver has been experiencing quite a few moments in recent times, with prices the highest they've been for years - and solar panel uptake is partly responsible. Sometimes referred to as poor man's gold, prices for silver yesterday were around AUD $1.59 a gram. This was lower than the highs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Impact of solar panels on silver prices","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/silver-solar-industry.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/silver-solar-industry.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/silver-solar-industry.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/silver-solar-industry.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/silver-solar-industry.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4907,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions\/4907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}