One of silver’s fastest-growing industrial markets is searching for an escape route—and China’s solar industry may have found one.
LONGi Green Energy has commenced mass production of a new generation of back-contact solar cells using copper-based metallization at its Xixian manufacturing base in Shaanxi province.
The production line has an annual capacity of approximately 21 gigawatts, making it one of the first genuinely large-scale deployments of copper-rich electrical contacts in high-efficiency photovoltaic cells. The company calls its new process Advanced Contact Matrix, or ACM, technology. (Longi)
For the solar industry, this is fundamentally a cost-reduction story.
For the silver market, it could become something much larger.
Why Solar Cells Need Silver
Solar cells require fine metallic contacts to collect the electrical current generated when sunlight strikes the silicon wafer. Silver has historically been the preferred material because it offers exceptional conductivity, can be printed in extremely narrow lines and has demonstrated dependable performance over the 25- to 30-year operating life expected from a modern solar panel.
The trouble is that silver is expensive.
The photovoltaic industry consumed approximately 196 million ounces of silver in 2025, representing about 17% of total global silver demand. As silver prices accelerated, the metal became one of the largest non-silicon expenses in solar-cell manufacturing. Silver paste has recently accounted for as much as 30% of total cell-production costs in some estimates. (Reuters)
That exposure became impossible for manufacturers to ignore when silver surged during 2025 and briefly exceeded $120 per ounce in January 2026. Prices subsequently retreated, falling below $80 and trading near $60 by July, but the episode demonstrated how vulnerable solar manufacturers had become to movements in the precious-metals market. (Reuters)
The response has been an industry-wide campaign to use less silver through finer printing, zero-busbar designs, silver-coated copper pastes and, ultimately, predominantly copper contacts.
LONGi has now taken that campaign from the laboratory to the factory floor.
How LONGi’s ACM Technology Works
LONGi’s ACM design places the electrical contacts on the rear of a back-contact, or BC, solar cell. Removing metal gridlines from the sun-facing surface reduces shading and gives engineers more freedom to redesign the cell’s conductive network.
The ACM system combines three important features:
A nanoscale barrier layer is used to prevent copper from migrating into the silicon wafer. A copper-based alloy provides the conductive material, while a matrix-style point-contact structure reduces the area where the metal touches the silicon.
This smaller contact area is intended to reduce recombination losses, lower metal consumption and preserve high conversion efficiency.
Unlike some copper-plating technologies, LONGi’s approach is designed to work with familiar printing and firing processes. That could make adoption considerably easier because manufacturers may not need to rebuild entire factories around new electroplating equipment. (pv magazine Global)
LONGi reports that its ACM cell has achieved a certified conversion efficiency of 27.6%, while a module incorporating the technology reached a certified output of 672 watts. In factory introduction data, the technology reportedly improved cell efficiency by 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points and added between three and five watts of module output. (Longi)
Those efficiency improvements are useful, but the real commercial prize is the reduction of silver exposure.
Industry estimates suggest that copper-rich or copper-dominant metallization could eventually reduce silver intensity per watt by 70% to more than 90%, depending on the cell architecture and whether any silver coating remains. LONGi has not, however, publicly disclosed the precise silver-per-watt figure, production yield or verified percentage reduction achieved at its new facility.
That missing information will be closely watched.
The 2030 Silver-Demand Problem
Solar has been expected to become an even more important source of silver consumption.
A recent peer-reviewed study forecasts that the photovoltaic industry could require between 10,000 and 14,000 metric tons of silver annually by 2030. That is equivalent to approximately 321 million to 450 million troy ounces per year.
Under those scenarios, solar alone could consume an amount equal to 29% to 41% of projected global silver supply. The same research estimates that total supply may satisfy only 62% to 70% of global silver demand by the end of the decade. (ScienceDirect)
Those projections assume continued solar expansion and varying degrees of silver intensity. Rapid copper adoption would substantially change the equation.
The adjustment may already be beginning. Metals Focus estimates that photovoltaic silver consumption declined to 186.6 million ounces in 2025 and could fall another 19% to approximately 151 million ounces in 2026 as manufacturers accelerate thrifting and substitution. (pv magazine USA)
LONGi’s 21 GW line alone will not overturn the global silver market. However, it provides something the industry previously lacked: a large commercial test of whether copper-based contacts can be manufactured consistently, efficiently and reliably.
If the process works at scale, other manufacturers will face enormous pressure to follow.
JinkoSolar and other major producers have already been exploring silver-coated copper pastes and alternative metallization systems. The transition may therefore occur in stages—first through reduced silver loadings, then hybrid materials, and eventually cells using little or no silver.
Copper Still Has Something to Prove
Replacing silver is not as simple as substituting one conductive metal for another.
Silver conducts electricity better than copper and is highly resistant to oxidation. Copper can corrode, diffuse into silicon and create performance-damaging defects. It is also vulnerable to electromigration, in which metal atoms gradually move under an electrical current.
A solar panel that performs perfectly when it leaves the factory must still survive decades of heat, moisture, electrical stress and temperature cycling.
LONGi says its barrier layer addresses copper diffusion and that the alloy formulation improves oxidation resistance. The company also says its pilot production has demonstrated stability and reliability. Nevertheless, detailed yield results and long-term outdoor performance data from the 21 GW operation have not yet been released. (Longi)
This is why the next several years matter.
The industry must prove that copper-based cells can match silver not merely in laboratory efficiency, but in manufacturing yield, warranty performance, degradation rates and bankability.
Is This Bearish for Silver?
Potentially—but not automatically.
A successful transition to copper could remove tens or even hundreds of millions of ounces from projected annual photovoltaic demand. That would weaken one of the strongest pillars supporting the long-term industrial silver narrative.
But it would not eliminate silver’s structural importance.
Silver demand continues to be supported by electronics, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, electrical-grid expansion, semiconductors and AI-related data centers. Meanwhile, much of the world’s silver is produced as a byproduct of mining copper, lead, zinc and gold, making supply relatively slow to respond to higher prices. The Silver Institute’s 2026 outlook still anticipates a sixth consecutive annual market deficit. (Investing News Network (INN))
There is also a possibility that cheaper solar modules stimulate additional installations. Some of the silver saved per panel could therefore be offset by a larger number of panels being produced.
The real question is whether solar deployment grows faster than silver intensity falls.
A New Battle Between Two Strategic Metals
LONGi’s new factory represents more than an incremental manufacturing improvement. It marks the beginning of a contest between two increasingly strategic metals.
Silver offers superior conductivity and proven longevity. Copper offers abundance, dramatically lower cost and a supply chain capable of supporting terawatt-scale solar production.
If LONGi demonstrates that copper can deliver comparable reliability, the solar industry may begin separating its future growth from silver consumption. That would reduce module costs, ease a potential raw-material bottleneck and alter forecasts that currently place solar at the center of an approaching silver shortage.
The silver market should not assume that every new gigawatt of solar capacity will continue requiring the same amount of precious metal.
LONGi’s 21 GW ACM line is the first major warning that the photovoltaic industry is no longer merely trying to conserve silver.
It is preparing to design silver out.
The strongest editorial next angle is that this development does not “kill” silver demand, but it may break the long-assumed direct relationship between global solar growth and rising silver consumption.
Leave a Reply