Australia’s ARENA has committed up to A$25.3 million to SunDrive to move its silver-free copper metallization from a pilot line in South Sydney to a 300 MW commercial-scale production tool, in partnership with Chinese equipment makers Maxwell Technologies and Jiangsu Vistar. It’s the most concrete vote yet for a technology that could lower costs, boost efficiency—and loosen the industry’s reliance on a precious metal that has become both pricey and politically sensitive.
The overlooked risk: solar’s dependence on silver
Silver isn’t a rounding-error in module costs. In 2024, PV used ~197.6 million ounces of silver—about 6,100–6,600 tonnes—and average prices rose 21% year-on-year,
