A booming renewables industry hikes the demand for silver + the world is in need of upgraded electrical grids to shoulder the energy transition

Growing solar power industry hikes silver demand: The global solar panel manufacturing industry’s demand for silver is expected to make up 14% of annual global silver consumption in 2023 up 9% from 2014 levels, Bloomberg writes, citing a report by The Silver Institute. Silver is used as a conductive layer for the front and back ends of solar panels. China is expected to hike the solar industry’s demand for silver on the back of its plans to install more solar panels this year than the entirety of the US. China is on track to install some 154 GW worth of solar panels in 2023 alone.

And new tech will need even more: Conventional solar cell tech — known as passivated emitter and rear contact panel manufacturing tech (PERC) — uses silver paste as an electrically conductive front contact and utilizes 10 mg of silver per watt. PERC is set to be overtaken in the next two to three years by TOPCon cells which require 13 mg of silver per watt and heterojunction production tech which uses 22 mg per watt, according to BloombergNEF data.

Outdated electricity grids are slowing down the energy transition: The pace at which renewables can replace fossil fuels is being hindered by outdated grids ill-equipped to handle a greater volume of renewables, Bloomberg reported last Friday. Power capacity needs to increase to 39.7 GW by 2050 from 8.5 GW last year, with the proportion of that energy derived from wind and solar rising to 70% from 25%, according to BloombergNEF data. In addition to accommodating this expanded volume of energy generation, the nature of renewable energy’s unstable frequency — which constantly fluctuates depending on the availability of the wind and sunshine — provides another hurdle, Bloomberg adds. It will cost around USD 21.4 tn to adapt grids to achieve global net zero goals, requiring 152 mn km of new high voltage cables to carry renewable energy surpluses from high generation regions to meet demand elsewhere.