Out with the silver, in with the copper: A new boost for solar cell production

> Fraunhofer researchers have developed an electroplating process that involves [in the production of photovoltaic modules] substituting silver... with copper... more readily available. They have also succeeded in replacing the polymers that are usually left over after electroplating processes, and are expensive to dispose of, by instead using easily recyclable aluminum for masking

> Even today, silver accounts for around 10% of the manufacturing price of a photovoltaic module. Moreover, there are only limited quantities of the metal available on Earth[, and t]he solar industry processes 15% of the silver mined

> According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), more than 96 TWh of energy was produced by photovoltaic systems worldwide in 2012, which rose to nearly 831 TWh by 2020

"Curiously" enough, an article was submitted hours ago about the industry now having to deal with the scarcity of, well, copper - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32683246

Whilst it states that 10% of the cost of solar panels is down to the price of silver it doesn’t mention what proportion would be due to the cost of copper, far less I imagine.

Whilst copper itself is becoming more scarce it’s less scarce than copper.

Somewhat reminded of the copper shortage in the second world war needed to drive uranium isotope separators:

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/from-treasury-vaul...