Comment by nerdralph
7 hours ago
Panels prices bottomed about a year ago below many manufacturer's cash cost, and have gone mostly sideways since. https://www.pvxchange.com/Price-Index
If silver stays above $70/oz, prices will likely go up by 5-10%.
Until Perovskite tandem technology matures, there's unlikely to be any significant reduction in PV module prices.
Manufacturers already reacted and intensified efforts to replace silver in panels with copper:
https://finance-commerce.com/2026/02/solar-panels-silver-to-...
I know. AIKO has been using copper in their BC cells, and LONGi is making the transition. Many TOPCon cell manufacturers are using silver-coated copper pastes, but full copper metallization is unlikely to happen in the next year or two.
Even if they got stuck at that price point and never went down again it's already over. 30 years of buying natural gas can't compete with that.