Mar 8 2012
Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has announced the release of its latest report on smart windows, “Silver in Photovoltiacs-2012.” In the report the firm projects that suppliers of silver inks and pastes face challenging times as the PV industry’s use of silver declines in the coming years.
NanoMarkets’ new report finds that while the use of silver will increase in front electrodes, back electrodes and tabbing will require substantially less silver leading to a rather significant drop in overall demand. Additional details about the report are available at: http://nanomarkets.net/market_reports/report/silver_in_photovoltaics_2012
About the Report:
“Silver in Photovoltaics – 2012” is the latest report from NanoMarkets in our ongoing coverage of materials and markets in the photovoltaics sector. In this report, NanoMarkets examines the changing opportunities for silver materials in the dynamic PV industry.
The report is designed to help silver suppliers to understand how changes in the PV industry will influence their sales. It considers how suppliers of silver materials to the PV industry can hold onto market share under the difficult circumstances that PV faces today: rapidly falling panel prices, huge pressures to continually reduce costs, and government subsidies under threat. It also considers these challenges in light of silver’s historically high – and likely to stay high – commodity price.
Taking into account these new dynamics, NanoMarkets identifies where opportunities are still available for silver in the PV sector and covers both conventional crystalline silicon PV and PV based on thin-film silicon, CdTe, CIGS, OPV, and DSC. The report includes coverage of established silver pastes and inks as well as newer materials based on nanomaterials, including the latest transparent nanosilver-based electrodes. It also examines alternative scenarios for silver in PV and provides an in depth discussion of materials challenges to silver in the PV sector, especially those presented by the use of copper and aluminum.
As with all NanoMarkets reports, this report contains detailed eight-year forecasts of the silver usage in the PV sector broken out by PV technology and how the silver is used within the PV cell itself. The forecasts are provided in both value and volume (ounces) terms. In addition, the report discusses the strategies of key firms to watch in this important sector.