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Why an Australian startup is betting on a copper solar boom.
SunDrive hopes its copper-based solar cell can reach commercial scale in partnership with global panel producer Trina

If an Australian startup gets its way, the silver lining in the global solar boom will become a copper one – before reserves of the material run out.
SunDrive Solar, backed by investors including Malcolm Turnbull and the billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, is hoping its copper-based solar cell can reach commercial scale through a partnership with Trina Solar, one of the world’s biggest panel producers.

Consuming about one-seventh of silver output yearly, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels could account for as much as 98% of world silver reserves on present trends and technology by 2050, University of New South Wales researchers argue.
Photovoltaic panels no longer capable of producing electricity are having their aluminium and wires removed before being ground up and refined into plastic, glass, silicon, silver and copper

SunDrive is hoping its copper-based solar cells will catapult from the pilot to the market stage in Australia and beyond through a planned joint venture with Trina. It’s applied for funding from the first round of the Albanese government’s $1bn Solar Sunshot program to build 1 gigawatts of solar modules a year at a western Sydney site.
“Copper is 1,000 times more abundant and 100 times cheaper per kilo than silver,” Natalie Malligan, SunDrive’s chief executive, says. “It also has performance benefits so you can generate more electricity per cell.

Stinsy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2024 10:03 am Solar panels are already so cheap they're effectively free.

Australia’s PV market is about 6GW of capacity a year – but it could expand as prices for modules continue to fall. Global solar panel capacity is close to 1,000GW yearly – the vast bulk of it in China – outstripping demand of less than 600GW.
“We’re in a huge oversupply condition at the moment [but] it will settle because the market doubles every three years,” Renate Egan, the head of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics based at UNSW, says. In a decade, “we’re expecting it to be 10 or 20GW a year” in Australia alone.

Fueltheburn wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2024 2:52 pm Performance wise Silver is more conductive than copper.
Roughly 10% more conductive.

Silver’s use in photovoltaics
Photovoltaic (PV) power is the leading current source of green electricity. Higher than expected photovoltaic capacity additions and faster adoption of new-generation solar cells raised global electrical & electronics demand by a substantial 20 percent in 2023. This gain reflects silver’s essential and growing use in PV, which recorded a new high of 193.5 Moz last year, increasing by a massive 64 percent over 2022’s figure of 118.1 Moz.

How is silver used in solar cells?
Silver powder is turned into a paste which is then loaded onto a silicon wafer. When light strikes the silicon, electrons are set free and the silver – the world’s best conductor – carries the electricity for immediate use or stores it in batteries for later consumption.

AE-NMidlands wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2024 6:42 pm I don't understand it. https://www.silverinstitute.org/silver- ... hnology-2/ says

Silver’s use in photovoltaics
Photovoltaic (PV) power is the leading current source of green electricity. Higher than expected photovoltaic capacity additions and faster adoption of new-generation solar cells raised global electrical & electronics demand by a substantial 20 percent in 2023. This gain reflects silver’s essential and growing use in PV, which recorded a new high of 193.5 Moz last year, increasing by a massive 64 percent over 2022’s figure of 118.1 Moz.

How is silver used in solar cells?
Silver powder is turned into a paste which is then loaded onto a silicon wafer. When light strikes the silicon, electrons are set free and the silver – the world’s best conductor – carries the electricity for immediate use or stores it in batteries for later consumption.

but if it's just the conductors behind the cells then slightly thicker copper would seem to be a reasonable alternative. Maybe "silver paste" can be applied by printing and kilned on the almost-completed panel to make the conductors, whereas copper can't?