Featured in Testing the waters – 07-2011

A thirst for silver

Silver: As a raw material of the contact grid, silver is the highest cost factor after the wafer in the manufacture of solar cells. Given the extreme price hikes this year alone, replacing the precious metal with industrial metals such as copper is becoming increasingly important. Yet this on its own will scarcely be enough to protect the industry from rising raw material costs.

By

pv magazine

28 Jun 2011

Strong pressure on silver prices in May awakened memories of the Hunt family on the raw material markets. By buying up silver and silver futures Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother William Herbert Hunt prompted huge price hikes for the precious metal on the New York Commodity Exchange (COMEX) in the seventies. Having started out …

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