Solar Panel Manufacturing
The industry that designs and produces photovoltaic modules, including both conventional silicon-based panels and thin-film alternatives such as cadmium telluride.
Covered in 3 MetalsCost.com News Intelligence articles, most recently on October 14, 2026.
Overview
Solar panel manufacturing turns semiconductor material into photovoltaic modules that convert sunlight into electricity. Most panels use crystalline silicon wafers; a smaller thin-film segment, led by cadmium telluride, deposits a much thinner semiconductor layer directly onto glass. Global installations keep setting records — additions topped 600 GW for the first time in 2025, with China responsible for around 60% of that year's new capacity.
Metals It Depends On
Both major panel technologies draw directly on metals this site tracks. Cadmium telluride is the semiconductor layer itself in the industry's leading thin-film technology, making tellurium supply a direct constraint on that line. Conventional crystalline-silicon cells, meanwhile, use silver paste to print the fine conductive contacts collecting current off each cell — a use so material that solar PV alone consumed close to a fifth of the world's silver in 2024.
Sources
- World added over 600 GW of new PV capacity in 2025 — The world added 605 GW of new PV capacity in 2025, says IEA (2026)
- Solar PV consumed ~19% of global silver demand in 2024 — Silver Industrial Demand Expected to Grow Despite Higher Prices (2025)
Coverage
Indian Copper Producers Urge the Government to Keep Import Duties in Budget 2027-28
A higher duty on ribbons and bus bars could raise input costs for module makers.
First Solar's Tellurium Solar Panels Sit Outside New US Tariffs Arriving December 4
A new US tariff structure exempts cadmium telluride technology from the price floors and duties applied to polysilicon-derived panels, a relative competitive advantage for CdTe manufacturers like First Solar as import costs rise for crystalline-silicon competitors.
Rio Tinto's Utah Copper Mine Builds a 30-Megawatt Solar Plant From Its Own Waste Tellurium
A verified, domestic tellurium supply chain reduces First Solar's exposure to import risk for the key input in its cadmium telluride thin-film panels.
