Silver Solar Usage

According to recent research by IHS, solar power production is forecast to rise by 30% in 2015 to 57 gigawatts of electricity. Silver paste is still the key element for the production of solar photovoltaic cells given its superior conductivity. In fact silver demand for PV cells alone will equate to about 70m oz or 2180 tonnes of silver.  That 30% is not new either, it rose 7% last year and the rate of growth is expected to increase over that 30% over the next decade as renewable solar energy is increasingly taken up.

Just for context, the supply side of the equation saw silver mine production of 877.5 million ounces in 2014, meaning solar useage alone is 8% of total mine supply.  As we’ve reported recently 2014 silver mine supply fell short of demand by 4.9 million ounces and HSBC expect the mine supply-demand gap to grow to 87 million ounces this year alone, and that is just the beginning of what is forecast to be an increasingly widening demand supply gap as production wanes…