#Summary: China’s Longi to Replace Silver in Solar Panels to Reduce Costs
China’s LONGi Green Energy will start mass-producing solar panels using base metals instead of silver in Q2 2026, aiming to reduce manufacturing costs amid industry-wide losses and intense competition.
**Key points:**
– **Cost driver:** Silver now represents 14% of solar module production costs (up from 5% two years ago) due to record-high prices driven by safe-haven demand and Fed rate cuts
– **Technology advantage:** LONGi uses back-contact (BC) solar cell technology, which makes silver replacement easier than mainstream TopCon designs. Expected cost reduction: 0.02 yuan ($0.003) per watt
– **Strategic focus:** The company will target domestic Chinese market plus Europe, US, and Australia for its energy storage business
This represents a significant industry shift as manufacturers seek to reduce dependency on expensive precious metals while maintaining solar panel efficiency.
WhipItWhipItRllyHard on
Copper is a regularly used material, which is available in much larger volumes than silver, at much lower pricing – and for LONGi’s modules – won’t cause too much of an efficiency hit.
With modules being so efficient these days though, a question for me is – what kind of efficiency hit would they take if all modules shifted to copper?
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#Summary: China’s Longi to Replace Silver in Solar Panels to Reduce Costs
China’s LONGi Green Energy will start mass-producing solar panels using base metals instead of silver in Q2 2026, aiming to reduce manufacturing costs amid industry-wide losses and intense competition.
**Key points:**
– **Cost driver:** Silver now represents 14% of solar module production costs (up from 5% two years ago) due to record-high prices driven by safe-haven demand and Fed rate cuts
– **Technology advantage:** LONGi uses back-contact (BC) solar cell technology, which makes silver replacement easier than mainstream TopCon designs. Expected cost reduction: 0.02 yuan ($0.003) per watt
– **Strategic focus:** The company will target domestic Chinese market plus Europe, US, and Australia for its energy storage business
This represents a significant industry shift as manufacturers seek to reduce dependency on expensive precious metals while maintaining solar panel efficiency.
Copper is a regularly used material, which is available in much larger volumes than silver, at much lower pricing – and for LONGi’s modules – won’t cause too much of an efficiency hit.
With modules being so efficient these days though, a question for me is – what kind of efficiency hit would they take if all modules shifted to copper?