Silver and Green Energy

Obama's ambitious plan to help stem America's dependence on foreign oil and create more sustainable energy sources helps silver's case as a great investment opportunity for the next decade.  Silver has already gained 25% over the past month but will likely decline in value as the summer wears on.  But if you're looking for a great long-term investment option, silver is a great choice due to its ties with green energy technology.

Demand for solar power technologies has seen a great increase worldwide in the past five years.  Many homes in Europe have solar panels that help reduce or eliminate the high cost of energy there, and many American homes and businesses are following suit.  One of the interesting facts to note about solar cells is that they contain relatively high amounts of silver as an electrode.  Each panel is so silver rich that the silver spot price is often a determining factor when solar panels are priced for home use.  In fact, photovotaics is the fastest growing application for silver.  Many experts agree that photovoltaics (PV) use of silver will double by 2015 and double again by 2020.  No other market is so heavily dependent on silver and so heavily influenced by the precious metals market as the PV sector.

Silver's role as an electrode in solar panels is just the tip of the iceberg.  Many other green technologies incorporate silver, gold, rhodium, and platinum into their design, construction, or implementation.  It's not just PV and green energy either.  Much of the health care industry uses silver for its anti-bacterial properties.  So much silver is being used in these sectors that the drop in silver demand that was created by the wide scale use of digital instead of film-based cameras has been erased.  Silver demand was down two to three percent due to the technology shift in photography, but now with PV technology, silver demand has bounced back and has been able to make some solid gains this year, much of which occurred in the month of May alone.

Another bright spot for silver in the green technology realm is with transparent composite materials, or TCM's.  These are added to conductive polymers to create new materials for high performance electrodes.  TCM applications will likely grow as technology moves ever forward, but the projected increase in silver demand due to TCM technology is exponential, considering all of the new applications that computers are beginning to have in the world around us.

Even if you don't buy into the Obama Administration's green energy plans, technological development in that sector will continue to progress with silver near the forefront.  There is little doubt that silver will have an immense influence on much of the technology of the future, whether it's energy-based, healthcare-based, or otherwise.  Getting in now while the price is still below $20 an ounce is an excellent idea and a great way to diversify your portfolio.  You can even think of it as a green energy investment and a hedge against the oil industry's grip on transportation and industry worldwide.