Silver price on the rise

The price of silver has risen significantly since the beginning of this year and now surpasses $31 per ounce.

“The silver market is currently performing well, and this is due to continued strong industrial demand for silver, especially in clean energy and electrical and electronic applications. In addition, there is an ongoing significant shortage of silver,” said Michael DiRienzo, president and CEO of The Silver Institute pv magazine. “The silver price has risen by more than 30% since the beginning of the year, with a particularly strong increase recorded in recent months.”

Another reason for the price increase was also the recent interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, which made hard assets such as precious metals more attractive to investors.

Silver prices are currently around $31, compared to around $20 in the same period a year earlier. “Despite this increase in silver prices, most analysts do not think it represents a critical threshold for the PV industry,” DiRienzo explains.

The average silver price in 2023 was $23.35 per ounce, compared to $21.73 per ounce in 2022.

US investment company Bank of America Corporation expects that the average silver price could reach $28.14 per ounce in 2024 and $35.38 per ounce next year.

Solar cells use silver to conduct the electrical charge from the cell to the system. Each cell produced today only requires a few milligrams of the precious metal, but this adds up quickly and numerous recent studies have illustrated how the fast-growing solar industry is using up much of the world’s known silver reserves. could deplete by 2050 or even sooner.

According to the Silver Institute, the current growth trajectory of the solar PV market will require approximately 332 million ounces of silver to support 1.33 terawatts/year of new installations by 2050.