Source: pv magazine Global
As China's massive PV installations from the 2010s boom reach end-of-life, the country will dump 739 metric tons of silver annually into recycling streams—enough to disrupt global silver markets and potentially crater prices for a commodity that already faces major supply constraints from mining. Solar manufacturers banked on virgin silver scarcity, but success at scale guarantees abundance from waste, forcing recycling infrastructure and downstream silver consumers (electronics, jewelry, industrial) to reprice their material assumptions within the next two decades.